■,  AivlERICANlZATION 

OF 

EDWARD  BOK 

\n  Autobiography 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 


t. 


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THE  AMERICANIZATION 
OF  EDWARD   BOK 


From  a  pholotiraph  by  Chandler,  Philadelphii 


' — 1 


College 
Library 


TO   THE    AMERICAN    WOMAN    I    OWE    MUCH 
BUT  TO   TWO   WOMEN    I    OWE    MORE 

MY    MOTHER 

AND 

MY   WIFE 

AND   TO   THEM    I   DEDICATE   THIS    ACCOUNT   OF   THE    BOY 

TO    WHOM    ONE    GAVE    BIRTH    AND     BROUGHT    TO     MANHOOD 

AND   THE   OTHER   BLESSED   WITH   ALL   THAT   A 

HOME   AND    FAMILY    MAY    MEAN 


msr-'tC^s 


AN  EXPLANATION 

This  book  was  to  have  been  written  in  1914,  when 
I  foresaw  some  leisure  to  write  it,  for  I  then  intended 
to  retire  from  active  editorship.  But  the  war  came,  an 
entirely  new  set  of  duties  commanded,  and  the  project 
was  laid  aside. 

Its  title  and  the  form,  however,  were  then  chosen. 
By  the  form  I  refer  particularly  to  the  use  of  the  third 
person.  I  had  always  felt  the  most  effective  method 
of  writing  an  autobiography,  for  the  sake  of  a  better  per- 
spective, was  mentally  to  separate  the  writer  from  his 
subject  by  this  device. 

Moreover,  this  method  came  to  me  very  naturally 
in  dealing  with  the  Edward  Bok,  editor  and  publicist, 
whom  I  have  tried  to  describe  in  this  book,  because,  in 
many  respects,  he  has  had  and  has  been  a  personality 
apart  from  my  private  self.  I  have  again  and  again  found 
myself  watching  with  intense  amusement  and  interest 
the  Edward  Bok  of  this  book  at  work.  I  have,  in  turn, 
applauded  him  and  criticised  him,  as  I  do  in  this  book. 
Not  that  I  ever  considered  myself  bigger  or  broader  than 
this  Edward  Bok:  simply  that  he  was  different.  His 
tastes,  his  outlook,  his  manner  of  looking  at  things  were 
totally  at  variance  with  my  own.  In  fact,  my  chief  dif- 
ficulty during  Edward  Bok's  directorship  of  The  Ladies^ 
Home  Journal  was  to  abstain  from  breaking  through  the 
editor  and  revealing  my  real  self.     Several  times  I  did 


viii  AN  EXPLANATION 

so,  and  each  time  I  saw  how  different  was  the  effect  from 
that  when  the  editorial  Edward  Bok  had  been  allowed 
sway.  Little  by  little  I  learned  to  subordinate  myself 
and  to  let  him  have  full  rein. 

But  no  reUef  of  my  life  was  so  great  to  me  personally 
as  his  decision  to  retire  from  his  editorship.  My  family 
and  friends  were  surprised  and  amused  by  my  intense 
and  obvious  relief  when  he  did  so.  Only  to  those  closest 
to  me  could  I  explain  the  reason  for  the  sense  of  absolute 
freedom  and  gratitude  that  I  felt. 

Since  that  time  my  feelings  have  been  an  interesting 
study  to  myself.  There  are  no  longer  two  personalities. 
The  Edward  Bok  of  whom  I  have  written  has  passed 
out  of  my  being  as  completely  as  if  he  had  never  been 
there,  save  for  the  records  and  files  on  my  library  shelves. 
It  is  easy,  therefore,  for  me  to  write  of  him  as  a  personality 
apart:  in  fact,  I  could  not  depict  him  from  any  other 
point  of  view.  To  write  of  him  in  the  first  person,  as  if 
he  were  myself,  is  impossible,  for  he  is  not. 

The  title  suggests  my  principal  reason  for  writing  the 
book.  Every  life  has  some  interest  and  significance; 
mine,  perhaps,  a  special  one.  Here  was  a  little  Dutch 
boy  unceremoniously  set  down  in  America  unable  to 
make  himself  understood  or  even  to  know  what  persons 
were  saying;  his  education  was  extremely  limited,  prac- 
tically negligible;  and  yet,  by  some  curious  decree  of 
fate,  he  was  destined  to  write,  for  a  period  of  years,  to 
the  largest  body  of  readers  ever  addressed  by  an  Amer- 
ican editor — the  circulation  of  the  magazine  he  edited 
running  into  figures  previously  unheard  of  in  periodical 
literatiure.    He  made  no  pretense  to  style  or  even  to  com- 


AN   EXPLANATION  ix 

position:  his  grammar  was  faulty,  as  it  was  natural  it 
should  be,  in  a  language  not  his  own.  His  roots  never 
went  deep,  for  the  intellectual  soil  had  not  been  favorable 
to  their  growth; — yet,  it  must  be  confessed,  he  achieved. 
But  how  all  this  came  about,  how  such  a  boy,  with 
every  disadvantage  to  overcome,  was  able,  apparently, 
to  "make  good" — this  possesses  an  interest  and  for 
some,  perhaps,  a  value  which,  after  all,  is  the  only  reason 
for  any  book. 

Edward  W.  Bok 

Merion 

Pennsylvania 

1920 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


An  Explanation vii 

An  Introduction  of  Two  Persons xvii 

CHAPTER 

I.    The  First  Days  in  America i 

II.    The  First  Job:    Fifty  Cents  a  Week       ...  8 

III.  The  Hunger  for  Self-Education 17 

IV.  A  Presidential  Friend  and  a  Boston  Pilgrim- 

age     29 

V.    Going  to  the  Theatre  with  Longfellow      .     .  41 

VI.    Phillips  Brooks's  Books  and  Emerson's   Men- 
tal Mist 48 

VII.    A  Plunge  into  Wall  Street 61 

VIII.    Starting  a  Newspaper  Syndicate 78 

IX.    Association  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher  ...  89 

X.    The  First  "Woman's  Page,"  "Literary  Leaves," 

AND  Entering  Scribner's 104 

XL    The  Chances  for  Success 119 

XII.    Baptism  Under  Fire 126 

XIII.  Publishing  Incidents  and  Anecdotes  ....  136 

XIV.  Last  Years  m  New  York 144 

zi 


xu  CONTENTS 

CBAPTEK  PAOl 

XV.  Successful  Editorship i6o 

XVI.  First  Years  as  a  Woman's  Editor   .     .     .  i66 

XVII.  Eugene  Field's  Practical  Jokes        .     .     .  i8i 

XVIII.  Building  Up  a  Magazine 190 

XIX.  Personality  Letters 204 

XX.  Meeting  a  Reverse  or  Two 219 

XXI.  A  Signal  Piece  of  Constructive  Work      .  238 

XXII.  An  Adventure  in  Civic  and  Private  Art  .  251 

XXIII.  Theodore  Roosevelt's  Influence     .     .     .  266 

XXIV.  Theodore    Roosevelt's  Anonymous  Work  273 
XXV.  The  President  and  the  Boy 284 

XXVI.  The  Literary  Back-Stairs 291 

XXVII.  Women's  Clubs  and  Woman  Suffrage  .     .  297 

XXVIII.  Going  Home  with  Kipling,  and  as  a  Lec- 
turer    309 

XXIX.  An  Excursion  into  the  Feminine  Nature  327 

XXX.  Cleaning    Up    the    Patent-Medicine    and 

Other  Evils 340 

XXXI.  Adventures  in  Civics 352 

XXXII.  A  Bewildered  Bok 365 

XXXIII.  How  Millions  of  People  Are  Reached      .  374 

XXXIV.  A  War  Magazine  and  War  Activities  .  387 
XXXV.  At  the  Battle-Fronts  in  the  Great  War  404 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CBAPTER  PAOK 

XXXVI.    The  End  of  Thirty  Years'  Editorship      .  417 

XXXVII.    The  Third  Period 424 

XXXVIII.    Where  America  Fell  Short  with  Me  .     .  434 

XXXIX.    What  I  Owe  to  America 448 


Edward  William  Bok:   Biographical  Data    453 
The  Expression  of  a  Personal  Pleasure    455 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Edward  W.  Bok Frontispiece 

rAClNG  PAGE 

Edward  Bok  at  the  age  of  six,  upon  his  arrival  in  the  United 

States    4 

William  J.  H.  Bok,  LL.D 6 

Edward  Bok's  birthplace  at  Helder,  Netherlands 44 

Sieke  Gertrude  Bok 158 

Edward  Bok's  present  home  "Swastika"  (named  by  Rudyard 

Kipling)  at  Merion,  Pennsylvania 214 

The  grandmother 240 

A  specimen  of  the  type  of  small  house  which  Edward  Bok  pub- 
lished     242 

Edward  Bok  as  editor  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal,  in  his  Phila- 
delphia office 258 

A  specimen  of  Theodore  Roosevelt's  manuscript,  which  Edward 

Bok  copied,  for  his  anonymous  department  "Men"  .      .      .     278 

"My  little  device  shows  the  master,  Sakia  Muni,  under  a  tree 
in  the  deer  park  at  Benares  teaching  his  disciples — /.  Lock- 
wood  Kipling." 312 

The  medallion,  designed  by  Mr.  John  Lockwood  Kipling  for  his 
son,  Rudyard  Kipling,  and  presented  by  the  latter  to  Ed- 
ward Bok 314 

The  Dutch  grandfather 362 

A  first  "scenario"  of  a  novel  by  Rudyard  Kipling       ....     384 

Where  Edward  Bok  is  happiest:  in  his  garden 450 


AN  INTRODUCTION  OF  TWO  PERSONS 

IN  WHOSE  LIVES  ARE  FOUND  THE  SOURCE  AND  MAINSPRING 
OF  SOME  OF  THE  EFFORTS  OF  THE  AUTHOR  OF  THIS  BOOK 
IN  HIS  LATER  YEARS 

Along  an  island  in  the  North  Sea,  five  miles  from  the 
Dutch  Coast,  stretches  a  dangerous  ledge  of  rocks  that  has 
proved  the  graveyard  of  many  a  vessel  sailing  that  turbulent 
sea.  On  this  island  once  lived  a  group  of  men  who,  as 
each  vessel  was  wrecked,  looted  the  vessel  and  murdered 
those  of  the  crew  who  reached  shore.  The  government  of 
the  Netherlands  decided  to  exterminate  the  island  pirates, 
and  for  the  job  King  William  selected  a  young  lawyer  at 
The  Hague. 

"/  want  you  to  clean  up  that  island,''^  was  the  royal 
order.  It  was  a  formidable  job  for  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
odd  years.  By  royal  proclamation  he  was  made  mayor  of 
the  island,  and  within  a  year,  a  court  of  law  being  estab- 
lished, the  young  attorney  was  appointed  judge;  and  in  that 
dual  capacity  he  ^^ cleaned  up^^  the  island. 

The  young  man  now  decided  to  settle  on  the  island,  and 
began  to  look  around  for  a  home.  It  was  a  grim  place, 
barren  of  tree  or  living  green  of  any  kind;  it  was  as  if  a 
man  had  been  exiled  to  Siberia.  Still,  argued  the  young 
mayor,  an  ugly  place  is  ugly  only  because  it  is  not  beau- 
tiful.    And  beautiful  he  determined  this  island  should  be. 


xviii      AN  INTRODUCTION  OF  TWO  PERSONS 

One  day  the  young  mayor-judge  called  together  his  coun- 
cil. ''We  must  have  trees"  he  said;  "we  can  make  this 
island  a  spot  of  beauty  if  we  will!"  But  the  practical  sear- 
faring  men  demurred;  the  little  money  they  had  was 
needed  for  matters  far  more  urgent  than  trees. 

" Very  well"  was  the  mayor^s  decision — and  little  they 
guessed  what  the  words  were  destined  to  mean — "/  will  do 
it  myself."  And  that  year  he  planted  one  hundred  trees , 
the  first  the  island  had  ever  seen. 

"Too  cold"  said  the  islanders;  "the  severe  north  winds 
and  storms  will  kill  them  all." 

"Then  I  will  plant  more,"  said  the  unperturbed  mayor. 
And  for  the  fifty  years  that  he  lived  on  the  island  he  did  so. 
He  planted  trees  each  year;  and,  moreover,  he  had  deeded  to 
the  island  government  land  which  he  turned  into  public 
squares  and  parks,  and  where  each  spring  he  set  out  shrubs 
and  plants. 

Moistened  by  the  salt  mist  the  trees  did  not  wither,  but 
grew  prodigiously.  In  all  that  expanse  of  turbulent  sea — 
and  only  those  who  have  seen  the  North  Sea  in  a  storm  know 
how  turbulent  it  can  be — there  was  not  a  foot  of  ground  on 
which  the  birds,  storm-driven  across  the  water-waste,  could 
rest  in  their  flight.  Hundreds  of  dead  birds  often  covered 
the  surface  of  the  sea.  Then  one  day  the  trees  had  grown 
tall  enough  to  look  over  the  sea,  and,  spent  and  driven,  the 
first  birds  came  and  rested  in  their  leafy  shelter.  And 
others  came  and  found  protection,  and  gave  their  gratitude 


AN  INTRODUCTION  OF  TWO  PERSONS        xix 

vent  in  song.  Within  a  few  years  so  many  birds  had  dis- 
covered the  trees  in  this  new  island  home  that  they  attracted 
the  attention  not  only  of  the  native  islanders  hut  also  of  the 
people  on  the  shore  five  miles  distant,  and  the  island  be- 
came famous  as  the  home  of  the  rarest  and  most  beautiful 
birds.  So  grateful  were  the  birds  for  their  resting-place 
that  they  chose  one  end  of  the  island  as  a  special  spot  for 
the  laying  of  their  eggs  and  the  raising  of  their  young,  and 
they  fairly  peopled  it.  It  was  not  long  before  ornithologists 
from  various  parts  of  the  world  came  to  "  Eggland,''  as  the 
farthermost  point  of  the  island  came  to  be  known,  to  see 
the  marvellous  sight,  not  of  thousands  but  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  bird-eggs. 

A  pair  of  storm-driven  nightingales  had  now  found  the 
island  and  mated  there;  their  wonderful  notes  thrilled  even 
the  souls  of  the  natives;  and  as  dusk  fell  upon  the  seabound 
strip  of  land  the  women  and  children  would  come  to  ''the 
square"  and  listen  to  the  evening  notes  of  the  birds  of  golden 
song.  The  two  nightingales  soon  grew  into  a  colony,  and 
within  a  few  years  so  rich  was  the  island  in  its  nightingales 
that  over  to  the  Dutch  coast  and  throughout  the  land  and  into 
other  countries  spread  the  fame  of  "The  Island  of  Night- 
ingales." 

Meantime,  the  young  mayor-judge,  grown  to  manhood, 
had  kept  on  planting  trees  each  year,  setting  out  his  shrub- 
bery and  plants,  until  their  verdure  now  beautifully  shaded 
the  quaint,  narrow  lanes,  and  transformed  into  cool  wooded 


XX  AN  INTRODUCTION  OF  TWO  PERSONS 

roads  what  once  had  been  only  barren  sun-baked  wastes. 
Artists  began  to  hear  of  the  place  and  brought  their  can- 
vases, and  on  the  walls  of  hundreds  of  homes  throughout 
the  world  hang  to-day  bits  of  the  beautiful  lanes  and  wooded 
spots  of  ^'The  Island  of  Nightingales."  The  American 
artist  William  M.  Chase  took  his  pupils  there  almost 
annually.  "In  all  the  world  to-day,"  he  declared  to  his 
students,  as  they  exclaimed  at  the  natural  cool  restfulness 
of  the  island,  "there  is  no  more  beautiful  place." 

The  trees  are  now  majestic  in  their  height  of  forty  or 
more  feet,  for  it  is  nearly  a  hundred  years  since  the  young 
attorney  went  to  the  island  and  planted  the  first  tree;  to- 
day the  churchyard  where  he  lies  is  a  bower  of  cool  green, 
with  the  trees  that  he  planted  dropping  their  moisture 
on  the  lichen-covered  stone  on  his  grave. 

This  much  did  one  man  do.     But  he  did  more. 

After  he  had  been  on  the  barren  island  two  years  he 
went  to  the  mainland  one  day,  and  brought  bcLck  with  him 
a  bride.  It  was  a  bleak  place  for  a  bridal  home,  but  the 
young  wife  had  the  qualities  of  the  husband.  "While 
you  raise  your  trees,"  she  said,  "I  will  raise  our  children." 
And  within  a  score  of  years  the  young  bride  sent  thirteen 
happy-faced,  well-brought-up  children  over  that  island, 
and  there  was  reared  a  home  such  as  is  given  to  few.  Said 
a  man  who  subsequently  married  a  daughter  of  that  home: 
"It  was  such  a  home  that  once  you  had  been  in  it  you  felt 
you  must  be  of  it,  and  that  if  you  couldn't  marry  one  of  the 


AN  INTRODUCTION  OF  TWO  PERSONS        xxi 

daughters  you  would  have  been  glad  to  have  married  the 
cook." 

One  day  when  the  children  had  grown  to  man's  and  wo- 
man's estate  the  mother  called  them  all  together  and  said 
to  them,  "/  want  to  tell  you  the  story  of  your  father  and 
of  this  island f"  and  she  told  them  the  simple  story  that  is 
written  here. 

''And  now,''  she  said,  ''as  you  go  out  into  the  world  I 
want  each  of  you  to  take  with  you  the  spirit  of  your  father's 
work,  and  each  in  your  own  way  and  place,  to  do  as  he 
has  done:  make  you  the  world  a  hit  more  beautiful  and  better 
because  you  have  been  in  it.  That  is  your  mother's  message 
to  you." 

The  first  son  to  leave  the  island  home  went  with  a  band  of 
hardy  men  to  South  Africa,  where  they  settled  and  became 
known  as  "the  Boers."  Tirelessly  they  worked  at  the 
colony  until  towns  and  cities  sprang  up  and  a  new  nation 
came  into  being:  The  Transvaal  Republic.  The  son  be- 
came secretary  of  state  of  the  new  country,  and  to-day  the 
United  States  of  South  Africa  bears  tribute,  in  part,  to 
the  mother's  message  to  "make  the  world  a  bit  more  beauti- 
ful and  better." 

The  second  son  left  home  for  the  Dutch  mainland,  where 
he  took  charge  of  a  small  parish;  and  when  he  had  finished 
his  work  he  was  mourned  by  king  and  peasant  as  one  of 
the  leading  clergymen  of  his  time  and  people. 

A  third  son,  scorning  his  own  safety,  plunged  into  the 


xxii        AN  INTRODUCTION  OF  TWO  PERSONS 

boiling  surf  on  one  of  those  nights  of  terror  so  common  to 
that  coastf  rescued  a  half-dead  sailor,  carried  him  to  his 
father's  house,  and  brought  him  back  to  a  life  of  usefulness 
thai  gave  the  world  a  record  of  imperishable  value.  For 
the  half-drowned  sailor  was  Heinrich  Schliemann,  the 
famous  explorer  of  the  dead  cities  of  Troy. 

The  first  daughter  now  left  the  island  nest;  to  her  in- 
spiration her  husband  owed,  at  his  life's  close,  a  shelf  of 
works  in  philosophy  which  to-day  are  among  the  standard 
books  of  their  class. 

The  second  daughter  worked  beside  her  husband  until 
she  brought  him  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  preachers 
of  his  land,  speaking  for  more  than  forty  years  the  message 
of  man's  betterment. 

To  another  son  it  was  given  to  sit  wisely  in  the  councils 
of  his  land;  another  followed  the  footsteps  of  his  father. 
Another  daughter,  refusing  marriage  for  duty,  ministered 
unto  and  made  a  home  for  one  whose  eyes  could  see  not. 

So  they  went  out  into  the  world,  the  girls  and  boys  of 
that  island  hom£,  each  carrying  the  story  of  their  father's 
simple  but  beautiful  work  and  the  remembrance  of  their 
mother's  message.  Not  one  from  that  home  but  did  well 
his  or  her  work  in  the  world;  some  greater,  some  smaller, 
but  each  left  behind  the  traces  of  a  life  well  spent. 

And,  as  all  good  work  is  immortal,  so  to-day  all  over  the 
world  goes  on  the  influence  of  this  one  man  and  one  woman, 
whose  life  on  that  little  Dutch  island  changed  its  barren 


AN  INTRODUCTION  OF  TWO  PERSONS      xxiii 

rocks  to  a  bower  of  verdure,  a  home  for  the  birds  and  the 
song  of  the  nightingale.  The  grandchildren  have  gone  to  the 
four  corners  of  the  globe,  and  are  now  the  generation  of 
workers — some  in  the  far  East  Indies;  others  in  Africa; 
still  others  in  our  own  land  of  America.  But  each  has 
tried,  according  to  the  talents  given,  to  carry  out  the  message 
of  that  day,  to  tell  the  story  of  the  grandfather^s  work; 
just  as  it  is  told  here  by  the  author  of  this  book,  who,  in 
the  efforts  of  his  later  years,  has  tried  to  carry  out,  so  far 
as  opportunity  has  come  to  him,  the  message  of  his  grand- 
mother: 

''Make  you  the  world  a  bit  more  beautiful  and  better 
because  you  have  been  in  it," 


THE  AMERICANIZATION 
OF  EDWARD   BOK 


CHAPTER  1 
THE  FIRST  DAYS  IN  AMERICA 

The  leviathan  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  in  1870,  was 
The  Queen,  and  when  she  was  warped  into  her  dock 
on  September  20  of  that  year,^  she  discharged,  among 
her  passengers,  a  family  of  four  from  the  Netherlands 
who  were  to  make  an  experiment  of  Americanization. 

The  father,  a  man  bearing  one  of  the  most  respected 
names  in  the  Netherlands,  had  acquired  wealth  and 
position  for  himself;  unwise  investments,  however,  had 
swept  away  his  fortune,  and  in  preference  to  a  new  start 
in  his  own  land,  he  had  decided  to  make  the  new  be- 
ginning in  the  United  States,  where  a  favorite  brother- 
in-law  had  gone  several  years  before.  But  that,  never 
a  simple  matter  for  a  man  who  has  reached  forty-two, 
is  particularly  difficult  for  a  foreigner  in  a  strange  land. 
This  fact  he  and  his  wife  were  to  find  out.  The  wife, 
also  carefully  reared,  had  been  accustomed  to  a  scale  of 
living  which  she  had  now  to  abandon.  Her  American- 
ization experiment  was  to  compel  her,  for  the  first  time 
in  her  life,  to  become  a  housekeeper  without  domestic 
help.  There  were  two  boys:  the  elder,  William,  was 
eight  and  a  half  years  of  age;  the  younger,  in  nineteen 
days  from  his  landing-date,  was  to  celebrate  his  seventh 
birthday. 

This  younger  boy  was  Edward  William  Bok.  He  had, 
according  to  the  Dutch  custom,  two  other  names,  but 


2        THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

he  had  decided  to  leave  those  in  the  Netherlands. 
And  the  American  public  was,  in  later  years,  to  omit  for 
him  the  "WiUiam." 

Edward's  first  six  days  in  the  United  States  were 
spent  in  New  York,  and  then  he  was  taken  to  Brooklyn, 
where  he  was  destined  to  live  for  nearly  twenty  years. 

Thanks  to  the  linguistic  sense  inherent  in  the  Dutch, 
and  to  an  educational  system  that  compels  the  study 
of  languages,  English  was  already  familiar  to  the  father 
and  mother.  But  to  the  two  sons,  who  had  barely 
learned  the  beginnings  of  their  native  tongue,  the  Eng- 
Ush  language  was  as  a  closed  book.  It  seemed  a  cruel 
decision  of  the  father  to  put  his  two  boys  into  a  pubUc 
school  in  Brooklyn,  but  he  argued  that  if  they  were  to 
become  Americans,  the  sooner  they  became  part  of  the 
life  of  the  country  and  learned  its  language  for  them- 
selves, the  better.  And  so,  without  the  abihty  to  make 
known  the  shghtest  want  or  to  understand  a  single  word, 
the  morning  after  their  removal  to  Brooklyn,  the  two 
boys  were  taken  by  their  father  to  a  pubHc  school. 

The  American  public-school  teacher  was  perhaps  even 
less  well  equipped  in  those  days  than  she  is  to-day  to 
meet  the  needs  of  two  Dutch  boys  who  could  not  under- 
stand a  word  she  said,  and  who  could  only  wonder  what 
it  was  all  about.  The  brothers  did  not  even  have  the 
comfort  of  each  other's  company,  for,  graded  by  age, 
they  were  placed  in  separate  classes. 

Nor  was  the  American  boy  of  1870  a  whit  less  cruel 
than  is  the  American  boy  of  1920;  and  he  was  none  the 
less  loath  to  show  that  cruelty.  This  trait  was  evident 
at  the  first  recess  of  the  first  day  at  school    At  the  dis- 


THE  FIRST  DAYS  IN  AMERICA  3 

missal,  the  brothers  naturally  sought  each  other,  only 
to  find  themselves  surrounded  by  a  group  of  tormentors 
who  were  delighted  to  have  such  promising  objects  for 
their  fun.  And  of  this  opportunity  they  made  the  most. 
There  was  no  form  of  petty  cruelty  boys'  minds  could 
devise  that  was  not  inflicted  upon  the  two  helpless 
strangers.  Edward  seemed  to  look  particularly  invit- 
ing, and  nicknaming  him  "Dutchy"  they  devoted  them- 
selves at  each  noon  recess  and  after  school  to  inflicting 
their  cruelties  upon  him. 

Louis  XIV  may  have  been  right  when  he  said  that 
"every  new  language  requires  a  new  soul,"  but  Edward 
Bok  knew  that  while  spoken  languages  might  differ,  there 
is  one  language  understood  by  boys  the  world  over. 
And  with  this  language  Edward  decided  to  do  some  ex- 
perimenting. After  a  few  days  at  school,  he  cast  his 
eyes  over  the  group  of  his  tormentors,  picked  out  one 
who  seemed  to  him  the  ringleader,  and  before  the  boy 
was  aware  of  what  had  happened,  Edward  Bok  was  in 
the  full  swing  of  his  first  real  experiment  with  American- 
ization. Of  course  the  American  boy  retaliated.  But 
the  boy  from  the  Netherlands  had  not  been  bom  and 
brought  up  in  the  muscle-building  air  of  the  Dutch  dikes 
for  nothing,  and  after  a  few  moments  he  found  himself 
looking  down  on  his  tormentor  and  into  the  eyes  of  a 
crowd  of  very  respectful  boys  and  giggling  girls  who 
readily  made  a  passageway  for  his  brother  and  himself 
when  they  indicated  a  desire  to  leave  the  schoolyard  and 
go  home. 

Edward  now  felt  that  his  Americanization  had  be- 
gun; but,  always  beheving  that  a  thing  begun  must  be 


4       THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

carried  to  a  finish,  he  took,  or  gave — it  depends  upon 
the  point  of  view — two  or  three  more  lessons  in  this 
particular  phase  of  Americanization  before  he  convinced 
these  American  schoolboys  that  it  might  be  best  for 
them  to  call  a  halt  upon  further  excursions  in  tor- 
ment. 

At  the  best,  they  were  difficult  days  at  school  for  a 
boy  of  six  without  the  language.  But  the  national 
linguistic  gift  inherent  in  the  Dutch  race  came  to  the 
boy's  rescue,  and  as  the  roots  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  lie  in 
the  Frisian  tongue,  and  thus  in  the  language  of  his 
"native  country,  Edward  soon  found  that  with  a  change 
of  vowel  here  and  there  the  EngUsh  language  was  not 
so  difficult  of  conquest.  At  all  events,  he  set  out  to 
master  it. 

But  his  fatal  gift  of  editing,  although  its  possession 
was  unknown  to  him,  began  to  assert  itself  when,  just 
as  he  seemed  to  be  getting  along  fairly  well,  he  balked 
at  following  the  Spencerian  style  of  writing  in  his  copy- 
books. Instinctively  he  rebelled  at  the  flourishes  which 
embellished  that  form  of  handwriting.  He  seemed  to 
divine  somehow  that  such  penmanship  could  not  be 
useful  or  practicable  for  after  life,  and  so,  with  that 
Dutch  stolidity  that,  once  fixed,  knows  no  altering,  he 
refused  to  copy  his  writing  lessons.  Of  course  trouble 
immediately  ensued  between  Edward  and  his  teacher. 
Finding  herself  against  a  Hteral  blank  wall — for  Edward 
simply  refused,  but  had  not  the  gift  of  Enghsh  with 
which  to  explain  his  refusal — the  teacher  decided  to 
take  the  matter  to  the  male  principal  of  the  school. 
She  explained  that  she  had  kept  Edward  after  school  for 


EDWARD  BOK  AT  THE  AGE  OF  SIX 
Upon  his  arrival  in  the  United  States 


THE  FIRST  DAYS  IN  AMERICA  5 

as  long  as  two  hours  to  compel  him  to  copy  his  Spen- 
cerian  lesson,  but  that  the  boy  simply  sat  quiet.  He 
was  perfectly  well-behaved,  she  explained,  but  as  to  his 
lesson,  he  would  attempt  absolutely  nothing. 

It  was  the  prevaihng  custom  in  the  pubhc  schools  of 
1870  to  punish  boys  by  making  them  hold  out  the  palms 
of  their  hands,  upon  which  the  principal  would  inflict 
blows  with  a  rattan.  The  first  time  Edward  was  pun- 
ished in  this  way,  his  hand  became  so  swollen  he 
wondered  at  a  system  of  punishment  which  rendered 
him  incapable  of  writing,  particularly  as  the  discerning 
principal  had  chosen  the  boy's  right  hand  upon  which 
to  rain  the  blows.  Edward  was  told  to  sit  down  at 
the  principal's  own  desk  and  copy  the  lesson.  He  sat, 
but  he  did  not  write.  He  would  not  for  one  thing,  and 
he  could  not  if  he  would.  After  half  an  hour  of  pur- 
poseless sitting,  the  principal  ordered  Edward  again  to 
stand  up  and  hold  out  his  hand;  and  once  more  the 
rattan  fell  in  repeated  blows.  Of  course  it  did  no  good, 
and  as  it  was  then  five  o'clock,  and  the  principal  had 
inflicted  all  the  punishment  that  the  law  allowed,  and 
as  he  probably  wanted  to  go  home  as  much  as  Edward 
did,  he  dismissed  the  sore-handed  but  more-than-ever- 
determined  Dutch  boy. 

Edward  went  home  to  his  father,  exhibited  his  swol- 
len hand,  explained  the  reason,  and  showed  the  pen- 
manship lesson  which  he  had  refused  to  copy.  It  is  a 
singular  fact  that  even  at  that  age  he  already  under- 
stood Americanization  enough  to  realize  that  to  cope 
successfully  with  any  American  institution,  one  must  be 
constructive  as  weU  as  destructive.     He  went  to  his 


6       THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

room,  brought  out  a  specimen  of  Italian  handwriting 
which  he  had  seen  in  a  newspaper,  and  explained  to 
his  father  that  this  simpler  penmanship  seemed  to  him 
better  for  practical  purposes  than  the  curlicue  fancifully 


SPENCERIAN  STYLE  IN  VOGUE  AT  THIS  PERIOD 

embroidered  Spencerian  style;  that  if  he  had  to  learn 
penmanship,  why  not  learn  the  system  that  was  of  more 
possible  use  in  after  life  ? 

Now,  your  Dutchman  is  nothing  if  not  practical.  He 
is  very  simple  and  direct  in  his  nature,  and  is  very  likely 
to  be  equally  so  in  his  mental  view.  Edward's  father 
was  distinctly  interested — very  much  amused,  as  he 
confessed  to  the  boy  in  later  years — in  his  son's  discern- 
ment of  the  futility  of  the  Spencerian  style  of  penman- 
ship. He  agreed  with  the  boy,  and,  next  morning,  ac- 
companied him  to  school  and  to  the  principal.  The  two 
men  were  closeted  together,  and  when  they  came  out 
Edward  was  sent  to  his  classroom.  For  some  weeks 
he  was  given  no  penmanship  lessons,  and  then  a  new 
copy-book  was  given  him  with  a  much  simpler  style. 
He  pounced  upon  it,  and  within  a  short  time  stood  at 
the  head  of  his  class  in  writing. 

The  same  instinct  that  was  so  often  to  lead  Edward 
aright  in  his  future  life,  at  its  very  beginning  served  him 
in  a  singularly  valuable  way  in  directing  his  attention 


WILLIAM  J.  H.  BOK,  LL.D. 

Father  of  Edward  Bok 


THE  FIRST  DAYS  IN  AMERICA  7 

to  the  study  of  penmanship;    for  it  was  through  his 
legible  handwriting  that  later,  in  the  absence  of  the 
typewriter,  he  was  able  to  secure  and  satisfactorily  fill 
three  positions  which  were  to  lead  to  his  final  success. 
Years  afterward  Edward  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 

l^^'tJztJ^^  6^-^^-^!^.^    c^C^^z4^/tyyi^ 

SPENCERIAN  STYLE  NOW  IN  VOGUE 

public-school  pupils  given  a  choice  of  penmanship 
lessons:  one  along  the  flourish  lines  and  the  other  of  a 
less  ornate  order.  Of  course,  the  boy  never  associated 
the  incident  of  his  refusal  with  the  change  until  later 
when  his  mother  explained  to  him  that  the  principal  of 
the  school,  of  whom  the  father  had  made  a  warm  friend, 
was  so  impressed  by  the  boy's  simple  but  correct  view, 
that  he  took  up  the  matter  with  the  board  of  education, 
and  a  choice  of  systems  was  considered  and  later  de- 
cided upon. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that,  unconsciously,  Edward 
Bok  had  started  upon  his  career  of  editing ! 


CHAPTER   II 
THE  FIRST  JOB:    FIFTY  CENTS  A  WEEK 

The  elder  Bok  did  not  find  his  "lines  cast  in  pleasant 
places"  in  the  United  States.  He  found  himself,  pro- 
fessionally, unable  to  adjust  the  methods  of  his  own  land 
and  of  a  lifetime  to  those  of  a  new  country.  As  a 
result  the  fortunes  of  the  transplanted  family  did  not 
flourish,  and  Edward  soon  saw  his  mother  physically 
failing  under  burdens  to  which  her  nature  was  not 
accustomed  nor  her  hands  trained.  Then  he  and  his 
brother  decided  to  relieve  their  mother  in  the  house- 
work by  rising  early  in  the  morning,  building  the  fire, 
preparing  breakfast,  and  washing  the  dishes  before  they 
went  to  school.  After  school  they  gave  up  their  play 
hours,  and  swept  and  scrubbed,  and  helped  their  mother 
to  prepare  the  evening  meal  and  wash  the  dishes  after- 
ward. It  was  a  curious  coincidence  that  it  should  faU 
upon  Edward  thus  to  get  a  first-hand  knowledge  of 
woman's  housework  which  was  to  stand  him  in  such 
practical  stead  in  later  years. 

It  was  not  easy  for  the  parents  to  see  their  boys  thus 
forced  to  do  work  which  only  a  short  while  before  had 
been  done  by  a  retinue  of  servants.  And  the  capstone 
of  humiliation  seemed  to  be  when  Edward  and  his 
brother,  after  having  for  several  mornings  found  no 
kindling  wood  or  coal  to  build  the  fire,  decided  to  go  out 
of  evenings  with  a  basket  and  pick  up  what  wood  they 


THE  FIRST  JOB:  FIFTY  CENTS  A  WEEK  9 

could  find  in  neighboring  lots,  and  the  bits  of  coal 
spilled  from  the  coal-bin  of  the  grocery-store,  or  left 
on  the  curbs  before  houses  where  coal  had  been  de- 
livered. The  mother  remonstrated  with  the  boys,  al- 
though in  her  heart  she  knew  that  the  necessity  was  upon 
them.  But  Edward  had  been  started  upon  his  Ameri- 
canization career,  and  answered:  "This  is  America, 
where  one  can  do  anything  if  it  is  honest.  So  long  as 
we  don't  steal  the  wood  or  coal,  why  shouldn't  we  get 
it?"  And,  turning  away,  the  saddened  mother  said 
nothing. 

But  while  the  doing  of  these  homely  chores  was  very 
effective  in  relieving  the  untrained  and  tired  mother, 
it  added  little  to  the  family  income.  Edward  looked 
about  and  decided  that  the  time  had  come  for  him,  young 
as  he  was,  to  begin  some  sort  of  wage-earning.  But  how 
and  where?  The  answer  he  found  one  afternoon  when 
standing  before  the  shop-window  of  a  baker  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  owner  of  the  bakery,  who  had  just 
placed  in  the  window  a  series  of  trays  filled  with  buns, 
tarts,  and  pies,  came  outside  to  look  at  the  display.  He 
found  the  hungry  boy  wistfully  regarding  the  tempting- 
looking  wares. 

"Look  pretty  good,  don't  they?"  asked  the  baker. 

"They  would,"  answered  the  Dutch  boy  with  his 
national  passion  for  cleanliness,  "if  your  window  were 
clean." 

"That's  so,  too,"  mused  the  baker.  "Perhaps  you'll 
clean  it." 

"I  will,"  was  the  laconic  reply.  And  Edward  Bok, 
there  and  then,  got  his  first  job.     He  went  in,  found  a 


lo     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

step-ladder,  and  put  so  much  Dutch  energy  into  the 
cleaning  of  the  large  show-window  that  the  baker 
immediately  arranged  with  him  to  clean  it  every  Tues- 
day and  Friday  afternoon  after  school.  The  salary  was 
to  be  fifty  cents  per  week  ! 

But  one  day,  after  he  had  finished  cleaning  the  win- 
dow, and  the  baker  was  busy  in  the  rear  of  the  store, 
a  customer  came  in,  and  Edward  ventured  to  wait  on 
her.  Dexterously  he  wrapped  up  for  another  the  fra- 
grant currant-buns  for  which  his  young  soul — and 
stomach — so  hungered !  The  baker  watched  him,  saw 
how  quickly  and  smilingly  he  served  the  customer, 
and  offered  Edward  an  extra  dollar  per  week  if  he 
would  come  in  afternoons  and  sell  behind  the  counter. 
He  immediately  entered  into  the  bargain  with  the  un- 
derstanding that,  in  addition  to  his  salary  of  a  doUar 
and  a  half  per  week,  he  should  each  afternoon  carry 
home  from  the  good  things  unsold  a  moderate  some- 
thing as  a  present  to  his  mother.  The  baker  agreed, 
and  Edward  promised  to  come  each  afternoon  except 
Saturday. 

''Want  to  play  ball,  hey?"  said  the  baker. 

"Yes,  I  want  to  play  ball,"  replied  the  boy,  but  he  was 
not  reserving  his  Saturday  afternoons  for  games,  al- 
though, boy-like,  that  might  be  his  preference. 

Edward  now  took  on  for  each  Saturday  morning — 
when,  of  course,  there  was  no  school — the  delivery  route 
of  a  weekly  paper  called  the  South  Brooklyn  Advocate. 
He  had  offered  to  deliver  the  entire  neighborhood  edition 
of  the  paper  for  one  dollar,  thus  increasing  his  earning 
capacity  to  two  dollars  and  a  half  per  week. 


THE  FIRST  JOB:  FIFTY  CENTS  A  WEEK         ii 

Transportation,  in  those  days  in  Brooklyn,  was  by 
horse-cars,  and  the  car-line  on  Smith  Street  nearest 
Edward's  home  ran  to  Coney  Island.  Just  around  the 
corner  where  Edward  lived  the  cars  stopped  to  water 
the  horses  on  their  long  haul.  The  boy  noticed  that  the 
men  jumped  from  the  open  cars  in  summer,  ran  into  the 
cigar-store  before  which  the  watering- trough  was  placed, 
and  got  a  drink  of  water  from  the  ice-cooler  placed  near 
the  door.  But  that  was  not  so  easily  possible  for  the 
women,  and  they,  especially  the  children,  were  forced 
to  take  the  long  ride  without  a  drink.  It  was  this  that 
he  had  in  mind  when  he  reserved  his  Saturday  afternoon 
to  "play  ball." 

Here  was  an  opening,  and  Edward  decided  to  fill  it. 
He  bought  a  shining  new  pail,  screwed  three  hooks  on 
the  edge  from  which  he  hung  three  clean  shimmering 
glasses,  and  one  Saturday  afternoon  when  a  car  stopped 
the  boy  leaped  on,  tactfully  asked  the  conductor  if  he 
did  not  want  a  drink,  and  then  proceeded  to  sell  his 
water,  cooled  with  ice,  at  a  cent  a  glass  to  the  passen- 
gers. A  little  experience  showed  that  he  exhausted  a 
pail  with  every  two  cars,  and  each  pail  netted  him  thirty 
cents.  Of  course  Sunday  was  a  most  profitable  day; 
and  after  going  to  Sunday-school  in  the  morning,  he  did 
a  further  Sabbath  service  for  the  rest  of  the  day  by  re- 
freshing tired  mothers  and  thirsty  children  on  the  Coney 
Island  cars — at  a  penny  a  glass ! 

But  the  profit  of  six  dollars  which  Edward  was  now 
reaping  in  his  newly  found  "bonanza"  on  Saturday  and 
Sunday  afternoons  became  apparent  to  other  boys, 
and  one  Saturday  the  young  ice-water  boy  found  that 


12      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

he  had  a  competitor;  then  two  and  soon  three.  Ed- 
ward immediately  met  the  challenge;  he  squeezed  half 
a  dozen  lemons  into  each  pail  of  water,  added  some 
sugar,  tripled  his  charge,  and  continued  his  monopoly 
by  selling  ''Lemonade,  three  cents  a  glass."  Soon 
more  passengers  were  asking  for  lemonade  than  for  plain 
drinking-water ! 

One  evening  Edward  went  to.  a  party  of  young  peo- 
ple, and  his  latent  journaHstic  sense  whispered  to  him 
that  his  young  hostess  might  Hke  to  see  her  social  affair 
in  print.  He  went  home,  wrote  up  the  party,  being 
careful  to  include  the  name  of  every  boy  and  girl  present, 
and  next  morning  took  the  account  to  the  city  editor 
of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle,  with  the  sage  observation  that 
every  name  mentioned  in  that  paragraph  represented  a 
buyer  of  the  paper,  who  would  like  to  see  his  or  her  name 
in  print,  and  that  if  the  editor  had  enough  of  these  re- 
ports he  might  very  advantageously  strengthen  the  cir- 
culation of  The  Eagle.  The  editor  was  not  slow  to  see 
the  point,  and  offered  Edward  three  dollars  a  column 
for  such  reports.  On  his  way  home,  Edward  calculated 
how  many  parties  he  would  have  to  attend  a  week  to 
furnish  a  column,  and  decided  that  he  would  organize 
a  corps  of  private  reporters  himself.  Forthwith,  he 
saw  every  girl  and  boy  he  knew,  got  each  to  promise  to 
write  for  him  an  account  of  each  party  he  or  she  attended 
or  gave,  and  laid  great  stress  on  a  full  recital  of  names. 
Within  a  few  weeks,  Edward  was  turning  in  to  The 
Eagle  from  two  to  three  columns  a  week;  his  pay  was 
raised  to  four  dollars  a  column;  the  editor  was  pleased 
in  having  started  a  department  that  no  other  paper  car- 


THE  FIRST  JOB:  FIFTY  CENTS  A  WEEK        13 

ried,  and  the  "among  those  present"  at  the  parties  all 
bought  the  paper  and  were  immensely  gratified  to  see 
their  names. 

So  everybody  was  happy,  and  Edward  Bok,  as  a  full- 
fledged  reporter,  had  begun  his  journahstic  career. 

It  is  curious  how  deeply  embedded  in  his  nature,  even 
in  his  earliest  years,  was  the  inclination  toward  the 
publishing  business.  The  word  "curious"  is  used  here 
because  Edward  is  the  first  journalist  in  the  Bok  family 
in  all  the  centuries  through  which  it  extends  in  Dutch 
history.  On  his  father's  side,  there  was  a  succession  of 
jurists.     On  the  mother's  side,  not  a  journalist  is  visible. 

Edward  attended  the  Sunday-school  of  the  Carroll 
Park  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  Brooklyn,  of 
which  a  Mr.  Elkins  was  superintendent.  One  day  he 
learned  that  Mr.  Elkins  was  associated  with  the  pub- 
lishing house  of  Harper  and  Brothers.  Edward  had 
heard  his  father  speak  of  Harper^s  Weekly  and  of  the 
great  part  it  had  played  in  the  Civil  War;  his  father 
also  brought  home  an  occasional  copy  of  Harper's 
Weekly  and  of  Harper^s  Magazine.  He  had  seen  Har- 
per^ s  Young  People;  the  name  of  Harper  and  Brothers 
was  on  some  of  his  school-books;  and  he  pictured  in  his 
mind  how  wonderful  it  must  be  for  a  man  to  be  associ- 
ated with  publishers  of  periodicals  that  other  people 
read,  and  books  that  other  folks  studied.  The  Sunday- 
school  superintendent  henceforth  became  a  figure  of 
importance  in  Edward's  eyes;  many  a  morning  the  boy 
hastened  from  home  long  before  the  hour  for  school, 
and  seated  himself  on  the  steps  of  the  Elkins  house 
under  the  pretext  of  waiting  for  Mr.  Elkins's  son  to  go 


14     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

to  school,  but  really  for  the  secret  purpose  of  seeing  Mr. 
Elkins  set  forth  to  engage  m  the  momentous  business 
of  making  books  and  periodicals.  Edward  would  look 
after  the  superintendent's  form  until  it  was  lost  to  view; 
then,  with  a  sigh,  he  would  go  to  school,  forgetting  all 
about  the  Elkins  boy  whom  he  had  told  the  father  he 
had  come  to  call  for ! 

One  day  Edward  was  introduced  to  a  girl  whose 
father,  he  learned,  was  editor  of  the  New  York  Weekly. 
Edward  could  not  quite  place  this  periodical;  he  had 
never  seen  it,  he  had  never  heard  of  it.  So  he  bought 
a  copy,  and  while  its  contents  seemed  strange,  and  its 
air  unfamiliar  in  comparison  with  the  magazines  he 
found  in  his  home,  still  an  editor  was  an  editor.  He  was 
certainly  well  worth  knowing.  So  he  sought  his  newly 
made  young  lady  friend,  asked  permission  to  call  upon 
her,  and  to  Edward's  joy  was  introduced  to  her  father. 
It  was  enough  for  Edward  to  look  furtively  at  the  editor 
upon  his  first  call,  and  being  encouraged  to  come  again, 
he  promptly  did  so  the  next  evening.  The  daughter 
has  long  since  passed  away,  and  so  it  cannot  hurt  her 
feelings  now  to  acknowledge  that  for  years  Edward 
paid  court  to  her  only  that  he  might  know  her  father, 
and  have  those  talks  with  him  about  editorial  methods 
that  filled  him  with  ever-increasing  ambition  to  tread 
the  path  that  leads  to  editorial  tribulations. 

But  what  with  helping  his  mother,  tending  the  baker's 
shop  in  after-school  hours,  serving  his  paper  route, 
plying  his  street-car  trade,  and  acting  as  social  reporter, 
it  soon  became  evident  to  Edward  that  he  had  not  much 
time  to  prepare  his  school  lessons.    By  a  supreme  effort, 


THE  FIRST  JOB:  FIFTY  CENTS  A  WEEK        15 

he  managed  to  hold  his  own  in  his  class,  but  no  more. 
Instinctively,  he  felt  that  he  was  not  getting  all  that  he 
might  from  his  educational  opportunities,  yet  the  need 
for  him  to  add  to  the  family  income  was,  if  anything, 
becoming  greater.  The  idea  of  leaving  school  was 
broached  to  his  mother,  but  she  rebelled.  She  told  the 
boy  that  he  was  earning  something  now  and  helping 
much.  Perhaps  the  tide  with  the  father  would  turn 
and  he  would  find  the  place  to  which  his  unquestioned 
talents  entitled  him.  Finally  the  father  did.  He  as- 
sociated himself  with  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company  as  translator,  a  position  for  which  his  easy 
command  of  languages  admirably  fitted  him.  Thus, 
for  a  time,  the  strain  upon  the  family  exchequer  was 
lessened. 

But  the  American  spirit  of  initiative  had  entered  deep 
into  the  soul  of  Edward  Bok.  The  brother  had  left 
school  a  year  before,  and  found  a  place  as  messenger 
in  a  lawyer's  office;  and  when  one  evening  Edward  heard 
his  father  say  that  the  office  boy  in  his  department  had 
left,  he  asked  that  he  be  allowed  to  leave  school,  apply 
for  the  open  position,  and  get  the  rest  of  his  education 
in  the  great  world  itself.  It  was  not  easy  for  the  parents 
to  see  the  younger  son  leave  school  at  so  early  an  age, 
but  the  earnestness  of  the  boy  prevailed. 

And  so,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  Edward  Bok  left  school, 
and  on  Monday,  August  7,  1876,  he  became  office  boy 
in  the  electricians'  department  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company  at  six  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents 
per  week. 

And,  as  such  things  will  fall  out  in  this  curiously 


1 6     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

strange  world,  it  happened  that  as  Edward  drew  up  his 
chair  for  the  first  time  to  his  desk  to  begin  his  work 
on  that  Monday  morning,  there  had  been  bom  in  Boston, 
exactly  twelve  hours  before,  a  girl-baby  who  was  des- 
tined to  become  his  wife.  Thus  at  the  earUest  possible 
moment  after  her  birth,  Edward  Bok  started  to  work  for 
her! 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  HUNGER  FOR  SELF-EDUCATION 

With  school-days  ended,  the  question  of  self-educa- 
tion became  an  absorbing  thought  with  Edward  Bok. 
He  had  mastered  a  schoolboy's  English,  but  seven 
years  of  public-school  education  was  hardly  a  basis  on 
which  to  build  the  work  of  a  lifetime.  He  saw  each 
day  in  his  duties  as  office  boy  some  of  the  foremost  men 
of  the  time.  It  was  the  period  of  William  H.  Vander- 
bilt's  ascendancy  in  Western  Union  control;  and  the  rail- 
road millionnaire  and  his  companions,  Hamilton  McK, 
Twombly,  James  H.  Banker,  Samuel  F.  Barger,  Alonzo 
B.  Cornell,  Augustus  Schell,  William  Orton,  were  ob- 
jects of  great  interest  to  the  young  oflfice  boy.  Alexander 
Graham  Bell  and  Thomas  A.  Edison  were  also  constant 
visitors  to  the  department.  He  knew  that  some  of 
these  men,  too,  had  been  deprived  of  the  advantage  of 
collegiate  training,  and  yet  they  had  risen  to  the  top. 
But  how?  The  boy  decided  to  read  about  these  men 
and  others,  and  find  out.  He  could  not,  however,  af- 
ford the  separate  biographies,  so  he  went  to  the  Hbra- 
ries  to  find  a  compendium  that  would  authoritatively 
tell  him  of  all  successful  men.  He  found  it  in  Appleton's 
EncyclopcEdia,  and,  determining  to  have  only  the  best, 
he  saved  his  luncheon  money,  walked  instead  of  riding 
the  five  miles  to  his  Brooklyn  home,  and,  after  a  period 

17 


1 8     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

of  saving,  had  his  reward  in  the  first  purchase  from  his 
own  earnings:  a  set  of  the  Encyclopcedia.  He  now  read 
about  all  the  successful  men,  and  was  encouraged  to 
find  that  in  many  cases  their  beginnings  had  been  as 
modest  as  his  own,  and  their  opportunities  of  education 
as  limited. 

One  day  it  occurred  to  him  to  test  the  accuracy  of  the 
biographies  he  was  reading.  James  A.  Garfield  was 
then  spoken  of  for  the  presidency;  Edward  wondered 
whether  it  was  true  that  the  man  who  was  Hkely  to  be 
President  of  the  United  States  had  once  been  a  boy  on 
the  tow-path,  and  with  a  simple  directness  characteristic 
of  his  Dutch  training,  wrote  to  General  Garfield,  asking 
whether  the  boyhood  episode  was  true,  and  explaining 
why  he  asked.  Of  course  any  public  man,  no  matter 
how  large  his  correspondence,  is  pleased  to  receive  an 
earnest  letter  from  an  information-seeking  boy.  Gen- 
eral Garfield  answered  warmly  and  fully.  Edward 
showed  the  letter  to  his  father,  who  told  the  boy  that 
it  was  valuable  and  he  should  keep  it.  This  was  a  new 
idea.  He  followed  it  further:  if  one  such  letter  was 
valuable,  how  much  more  valuable  would  be  a  hundred  ! 
If  General  Garfield  answered  him,  would  not  other 
famous  men  ?  Why  not  begin  a  collection  of  autograph 
letters?    Everybody  collected  something. 

Edward  had  collected  postage-stamps,  and  the  hobby 
had,  incidentally,  helped  him  wonderfully  in  his  study 
of  geography.  Why  should  not  autograph  letters  from 
famous  persons  be  of  equal  service  in  his  struggle  for 
self-education?  Not  simple  autographs — they  were 
meaningless;    but  actual  letters  which  might  tell  him 


THE  HUNGER  FOR  SELF-EDUCATION  19 

something  useful.  It  never  occurred  to  the  boy  that 
these  men  might  not  answer  him. 

So  he  took  his  Encyclopcedia — its  trustworthiness  now 
established  in  his  mind  by  General  Garfield's  letter — 
and  began  to  study  the  lives  of  successful  men  and 
women.  Then,  with  boyish  frankness,  he  wrote  on 
some  mooted  question  in  one  famous  person's  hfe;  he 
asked  about  the  date  of  some  important  event  in  an- 
other's, not  given  in  the  Encyclopcedia;  or  he  asked  one 
man  why  he  did  this  or  why  some  other  man  did  that. 

Most  interesting  were,  of  course,  the  replies.  Thus 
General  Grant  sketched  on  an  improvised  map  the  exact 
spot  where  General  Lee  surrendered  to  him ;  Longfellow 
told  him  how  he  came  to  write  "Excelsior";  Whittier 
told  the  story  of  "The  Barefoot  Boy";  Tennyson  wrote 
out  a  stanza  or  two  of  "The  Brook,"  upon  condition 
that  Edward  would  not  again  use  the  word  "awful," 
which  the  poet  said  "is  slang  for  Sxry,'"  and  "I  hate 
slang." 

One  day  the  boy  received  a  letter  from  the  Con- 
federate general  Jubal  A.  Early,  giving  the  real  reason 
why  he  burned  Chambersburg.  A  friend  visiting  Ed- 
ward's father,  happening  to  see  the  letter,  recognized  in 
it  a  hitherto-missing  bit  of  histor}%  and  suggested  that 
it  be  published  in  the  New  York  Tribune.  The  letter 
attracted  wide  attention  and  provoked  national  dis- 
cussion. 

This  suggested  to  the  editor  of  The  Tribune  that 
Edward  might  have  other  equally  interesting  letters; 
so  he  despatched  a  reporter  to  the  boy's  home.  This 
reporter  was  Ripley  Hitchcock,  who  afterward  became 


20     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

literary  adviser  for  the  Appletons  and  Harpers.  Of 
course  Hitchcock  at  once  saw  a  "story"  in  the  boy's 
letters,  and  within  a  few  days  The  Tribune  appeared 
with  a  long  article  on  its  principal  news  page  giving  an 
account  of  the  Brooklyn  boy's  remarkable  letters  and 
how  he  had  secured  them.  The  Brooklyn  Eagle  quickly 
followed  with  a  request  for  an  interview;  the  Boston 
Globe  followed  suit;  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger 
sent  its  New  York  correspondent;  and  before  Edward 
was  aware  of  it,  newspapers  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  were  writing  about  "the  well-known  Brooklyn 
autograph  collector." 

Edward  Bok  was  quick  to  see  the  value  of  the  pub- 
licity which  had  so  suddenly  come  to  him.  He  received 
letters  from  other  autograph  collectors  all  over  the  coun- 
try who  sought  to  "exchange"  with  him.  References 
began  to  creep  into  letters  from  famous  persons  to  whom 
he  had  written,  saying  they  had  read  about  his  won- 
derful collection  and  were  proud  to  be  included  in  it. 
George  W.  Childs,  of  Philadelphia,  himself  the  possessor 
of  probably  one  of  the  finest  collections  of  autograph 
letters  in  the  country,  asked  Edward  to  come  to  Phila- 
delphia and  bring  his  collection  with  him — which  he 
did,  on  the  following  Sunday,  and  brought  it  back 
greatly  enriched. 

Several  of  the  writers  felt  an  interest  in  a  boy  who 
frankly  told  them  that  he  wanted  to  educate  himself, 
and  asked  Edward  to  come  and  see  them.  Accordingly, 
when  they  lived  in  New  York  or  Brooklyn,  or  came  to 
these  cities  on  a  visit,  he  was  quick  to  avail  himself  of 
their  invitations.     He  began  to  note  each  day  in  the 


THE  HUNGER  FOR  SELF-EDUCATION  21 

newspapers  the  "distinguished  arrivals"  at  the  New 
York  hotels;  and  when  any  one  with  whom  he  had 
corresponded  arrived,  Edward  would,  after  business 
hours,  go  up-town,  pay  his  respects,  and  thank  him  in 
person  for  his  letters.  No  person  was  too  high  for 
Edward's  boyish  approach;  President  Garfield,  General 
Grant,  General  Sherman,  President  Hayes — all  were 
called  upon,  and  all  received  the  boy  graciously  and 
were  interested  in  the  problem  of  his  self-education. 
It  was  a  veritable  case  of  making  friends  on  every  hand ; 
friends  who  were  to  be  of  the  greatest  help  and  value  to 
the  boy  in  his  after-years,  although  he  had  no  conception 
of  it  at  the  time. 

The  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  in  those  days  the  stopping- 
place  of  the  majority  of  the  famous  men  and  women 
visiting  New  York,  represented  to  the  young  boy  who 
came  to  see  these  celebrities  the  very  pinnacle  of  opu- 
lence. Often  while  waiting  to  be  received  by  some 
dignitary,  he  wondered  how  one  could  acquire  enough 
means  to  live  at  a  place  of  such  luxury.  The  main 
dining-room,  to  the  boy's  mind,  was  an  object  of  special 
interest.  He  would  purposely  sneak  up-stairs  and  sit 
on  one  of  the  soft  sofas  in  the  foyer  simply  to  see  the 
well-dressed  diners  go  in  and  come  out.  Edward  would 
speculate  on  whether  the  time  would  ever  come  when  he 
could  dine  in  that  wonderful  room  just  once ! 

One  evening  he  called,  after  the  close  of  business, 
upon  General  and  Mrs.  Grant,  whom  he  had  met  be- 
fore, and  who  had  expressed  a  desire  to  see  his  collec- 
tion. It  can  readily  be  imagined  what  a  red-letter  day 
it  made  in  the  boy's  life  to  have  General  Grant  say:  "It 


22.    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

might  be  better  for  us  all  to  go  down  to  dinner  first 
and  see  the  collection  afterward."  Edward  had  pur- 
posely killed  time  between  five  and  seven  o'clock, 
thinking  that  the  general's  dinner-hour,  like  his  own,  was 
at  six.  He  had  allowed  an  hour  for  the  general  to  eat 
his  dinner,  only  to  find  that  he  was  still  to  begin  it.  The 
boy  could  hardly  believe  his  ears,  and  unable  to  find  his 
voice,  he  failed  to  apologize  for  his  modest  suit  or  his 
general  after-business  appearance. 

As  in  a  dream  he  went  down  in  the  elevator  with  his 
host  and  hostess,  and  when  the  party  of  three  faced 
toward  the  dining-room  entrance,  so  familiar  to  the 
boy,  he  felt  as  if  his  legs  must  give  way  under  him. 
There  have  since  been  other  red-letter  days  in  Edward 
Bok's  life,  but  the  moment  that  still  stands  out  pre- 
eminent is  that  when  two  colored  head  waiters  at  the 
dining-room  entrance,  whom  he  had  so  often  watched, 
bowed  low  and  escorted  the  party  to  their  table.  At 
last,  he  was  in  that  sumptuous  dining-hall.  The  entire 
room  took  on  the  picture  of  one  great  eye,  and  that  eye 
centred  on  the  party  of  three — as,  in  fact,  it  naturally 
would.  But  Edward  felt  that  the  eye  was  on  him, 
wondering  why  he  should  be  there. 

What  he  ate  and  what  he  said  he  does  not  recall. 
General  Grant,  not  a  voluble  talker  himself,  gently 
drew  the  boy  out,  and  Mrs.  Grant  seconded  him,  until 
toward  the  close  of  the  dinner  he  heard  himself  talking. 
He  remembers  that  he  heard  his  voice,  but  what  that 
voice  said  is  all  dim  to  him.  One  act  stamped  itself 
on  his  mind.  The  dinner  ended  with  a  wonderful  dish 
of  nuts  and  raisins,  and  just  before  the  party  rose  from 


THE  HUNGER  FOR  SELF-EDUCATION  23 

the  table  Mrs.  Grant  asked  the  waiter  to  bring  her  a 
paper  bag.  Into  this  she  emptied  the  entire  dish, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  evening  she  gave  it  to  Edward 
"to  eat  on  the  way  home."  It  was  a  wonderful  eve- 
ning, afterward  up-stairs.  General  Grant  smoking  the  in- 
evitable cigar,  and  telling  stories  as  he  read  the  letters  of 
different  celebrities.  Over  those  of  Confederate  gen- 
erals he  grew  reminiscent;  and  when  he  came  to  a  letter 
from  General  Sherman,  Edward  remembers  that  he 
chuckled  audibly,  reread  it,  and  then  turning  to  Mrs. 
Grant,  said:  "  Juha,  listen  to  this  from  Sherman.  Not 
bad."    The  letter  he  read  was  this: 

Dear  Mr.  Bok: — 

I  prefer  not  to  make  scraps  of  sentimental  writing.  When 
I  write  anything  I  want  it  to  be  real  and  connected  in  form, 
as,  for  instance,  in  your  quotation  from  Lord  Lytton's  play 
of  "Richelieu,"  "The  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword."  Lord 
Lytton  would  never  have  put  his  signature  to  so  naked  a 
sentiment.     Surely  I  will  not. 

In  the  text  there  was  a  prefix  or  qualification : 

Beneath  the  rule  of  men  entirely  great 
The  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword. 

Now,  this  world  does  not  often  present  the  condition  of 
facts  herein  described.  Men  entirely  great  are  very  rare 
indeed,  and  even  Washington,  who  approached  greatness  as 
near  as  any  mortal,  found  good  use  for  the  sword  and  the  pen, 
each  in  its  proper  sphere. 

You  and  I  have  seen  the  day  when  a  great  and  good  man 
ruled  this  country  (Lincoln)  who  wielded  a  powerful  and  pro- 
lific pen,  and  yet  had  to  call  to  his  assistance  a  million  of 
flaming  swords. 


24     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

No,  I  cannot  subscribe  to  your  sentiment,  "The  pen  is 
mightier  than  the  sword,"  which  you  ask  me  to  write,  because 
it  is  not  true. 

Rather,  in  the  providence  of  God,  there  is  a  time  for  all 
things;  a  time  when  the  sword  may  cut  the  Gordian  knot, 
and  set  free  the  principles  of  right  and  justice,  bound  up  in 
the  meshes  of  hatred,  revenge,  and  tyranny,  that  the  pens  of 
mighty  men  like  Clay,  Webster,  Crittenden,  and  Lincoln 
were  unable  to  disentangle.  Wishing  you  all  success,  I  am, 
with  respect,  your  friend,  ^   ^   Sherman. 

Mrs.  Grant  had  asked  Edward  to  send  her  a  photo- 
graph of  himself,  and  after  one  had  been  taken,  the 
boy  took  it  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  intending  to  ask 
the  clerk  to  send  it  to  her  room.  Instead,  he  met 
General  and  Mrs.  Grant  just  coming  from  the  elevator, 
going  out  to  dinner.  The  boy  told  them  his  errand, 
and  said  he  would  have  the  photograph  sent  up-stairs. 

"I  am  so  sorry  we  are  just  going  out  to  dinner,"  said 
Mrs.  Grant,  "for  the  general  had  some  excellent  photo- 
graphs just  taken  of  himself,  and  he  signed  one  for  you, 
and  put  it  aside,  intending  to  send  it  to  you  when  yours 
came."  Then,  turning  to  the  general,  she  said:  "Ulys- 
ses, send  up  for  it.     We  have  a  few  moments." 

"I'll  go  and  get  it.  I  know  just  where  it  is,"  returned 
the  general.  "Let  me  have  yours,"  he  said,  turning  to 
Edward.  "I  am  glad  to  exchange  photographs  with 
you,  boy." 

To  Edward's  surprise,  when  the  general  returned  he 
brought  with  him,  not  a  duplicate  of  the  small  carte- 
de-visite  size  which  he  had  given  the  general — all  that 
he  could  afford — but  a  large,  full  cabinet  size. 


THE  HUNGER  FOR  SELF-EDUCATION  25 

"They  make  *em  too  big,"  said  the  general,  as  he 
handed  it  to  Edward. 

But  the  boy  didn't  think  so ! 

That  evening  was  one  that  the  boy  was  long  to  re- 
member. It  suddenly  came  to  him  that  he  had  read  a 
few  days  before  of  Mrs.  Abraham  Lincoln's  arrival  in 
New  York  at  Doctor  Holbrook's  sanitarium.  Thither 
Edward  went;   and  within  half  an  hour  from  the  time 


:^ 


dL^L..  /4  ^/w. 


he  had  been  talking  with  General  Grant  he  was  sitting 
at  the  bedside  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  showing  her  the  wonder- 
ful photograph  just  presented  to  him.  Edward  saw  that 
the  widow  of  the  great  Lincoln  did  not  mentally  respond 
to  his  pleasure  in  his  possession.  It  was  apparent  even 
to  the  boy  that  mental  and  physical  illness  had  done 
their  work  with  the  frail  frame.  But  he  had  the  mem- 
ory, at  least,  of  having  got  that  close  to  the  great  Presi- 
dent. 

The  eventful  evening,  however,  was  not  yet  over. 
Edward  had  boarded  a  Broadway  stage  to  take  him  to 
his  Brooklyn  home  when,  glancing  at  the  newspaper  of 
a  man  sitting  next  to  him,  he  saw  the  headline:  ''Jef- 
ferson Davis  arrives  in  New  York."  He  read  enough 
to  see  that  the  Confederate  President  was  stopping  at 
the  Metropolitan  Hotel,  in  lower  Broadway,  and  as  he 
looked  out  of  the  stage-window  the  sign  "Metropolitan 


26     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Hotel"  stared  him  in  the  face.  In  a  moment  he  was 
out  of  the  stage;  he  wrote  a  Httle  note,  asked  the  clerk 
to  send  it  to  Mr.  Davis,  and  within  five  minutes  was 
talking  to  the  Confederate  President  and  telling  of  his 
remarkable  evening. 

Mr.  Davis  was  keenly  interested  in  the  coincidence 
and  in  the  boy  before  him.  He  asked  about  the  famous 
collection,  and  promised  to  secure  for  Edward  a  letter 
written  by  each  member  of  the  Confederate  Cabinet. 
This  he  subsequently  did.  Edward  remained  with  Mr. 
Davis  until  ten  o'clock,  and  that  evening  brought  about 
an  interchange  of  letters  between  the  Brooklyn  boy  and 
Mr.  Davis  at  Beau  voir,  Mississippi,  that  lasted  until  the 
latter  passed  away. 

Edward  was  fast  absorbing  a  tremendous  quantity 
of  biographical  information  about  the  most  famous  men 
and  women  of  his  time,  and  he  was  compiling  a  collection 
of  autograph  letters  that  the  newspapers  had  made 
famous  throughout  the  country.  He  was  ruminating 
over  his  possessions  one  day,  and  wondering  to  what 
practical  use  he  could  put  his  collection;  for  while  it  was 
proving  educative  to  a  wonderful  degree,  it  was,  after  all, 
a  hobby,  and  a  hobby  means  expense.  His  autograph 
quest  cost  him  stationery,  postage,  car-fare — all  outgo. 
But  it  had  brought  him  no  income,  save  a  rich  mental 
revenue.  And  the  boy  and  his  family  needed  money. 
He  did  not  know,  then,  the  value  of  a  background. 

He  was  thinking  along  this  line  in  a  restaurant  when  a 
man  sitting  next  to  him  opened  a  box  of  cigarettes,  and 
taking  a  picture  out  of  it  threw  it  on  the  floor.  Edward 
picked  it  up,  thinking  it  might  be  a  "prospect"  for  his 


THE  HUNGER  FOR  SELF-EDUCATION  27 

collection  of  autograph  letters.  It  was  the  picture 
of  a  well-known  actress.  He  then  recalled  an  adver- 
tisement announcing  that  this  particular  brand  of 
cigarettes  contained,  in  each  package,  a  lithographed 
portrait  of  some  famous  actor  or  actress,  and  that  if 
the  purchaser  would  collect  these  he  would,  in  the  end, 
have  a  valuable  album  of  the  greatest  actors  and  actresses 
of  the  day.  Edward  turned  the  picture  over,  only  to 
find  a  blank  reverse  side.  "All  very  well,"  he  thought, 
"but  what  does  a  purchaser  have,  after  all,  in  the  end, 
but  a  lot  of  pictures  ?  Why  don't  they  use  the  back  of 
each  picture,  and  tell  what  each  did :  a  little  biography  ? 
Then  it  would  be  worth  keeping."  With  his  passion  for 
self -education,  the  idea  appealed  very  strongly  to 
him;  and  believing  firmly  that  there  were  others  pos- 
sessed of  the  same  thirst,  he  set  out  the  next  day,  in  his 
luncheon  hour,  to  find  out  who  made  the  picture. 

At  the  office  of  the  cigarette  company  he  learned  that 
the  making  of  the  pictures  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Knapp 
Lithographic  Company.  The  following  luncheon  hour, 
Edward  sought  the  offices  of  the  company,  and  ex- 
plained his  idea  to  Mr.  Joseph  P.  Knapp,  now  the 
president  of  the  American  Lithograph  Company. 

"I'll  give  you  ten  dollars  apiece  if  you  will  write  me 
a  one-hundred-word  biography  of  one  hundred  famous 
Americans,"  was  Mr.  Knapp's  instant  reply.  "Send  me 
a  list,  and  group  them,  as,  for  instance:  presidents 
and  vice-presidents,  famous  soldiers,  actors,  authors,  etc." 

"And  thus,"  says  Mr.  Knapp,  as  he  tells  the  tale  to- 
day, "I  gave  Edward  Bok  his  first  literary  commission, 
and  started  him  off  on  his  literary  career." 


28      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

And  it  is  true. 

But  Edward  soon  found  the  Lithograph  Com- 
pany calling  for  "copy,"  and,  write  as  he  might,  he 
could  not  supply  the  biographies  fast  enough.  He,  at 
last,  completed  the  first  hundred,  and  so  instantaneous 
was  their  success  that  Mr.  Knapp  called  for  a  second 
hundred,  and  then  for  a  third.  Finding  that  one  hand 
was  not  equal  to  the  task,  Edward  offered  his  brother 
five  dollars  for  each  biography;  he  made  the  same  offer 
to  one  or  two  journalists  whom  he  knew  and  whose 
accuracy  he  could  trust;  and  he  was  speedily  convinced 
that  merely  to  edit  biographies  written  by  others,  at 
one-half  the  price  paid  to  him,  was  more  profitable  than 
to  write  himself. 

So  with  five  journalists  working  at  top  speed  to  supply 
the  hungry  lithograph  presses,  Mr.  Knapp  was  likewise 
responsible  for  Edward  Bok's  first  adventure  as  an  editor. 
It  was  commercial,  if  you  will,  but  it  was  a  commercial 
editing  that  had  a  distinct  educational  value  to  a  large 
public. 

The  important  point  is  that  Edward  Bok  was  being 
led  more  and  more  to  writing  and  to  editorship. 


CHAPTER  IV 

A  PRESIDENTIAL  FRIEND  AND  A  BOSTON 
PILGRIMAGE 

Edward  Bok  had  not  been  office  boy  long  before  he 
realized  that  if  he  learned  shorthand  he  would  stand 
a  better  chance  for  advancement.  So  he  joined  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  Brooklyn,  and 
entered  the  class  in  stenography.  But  as  this  class  met 
only  twice  a  week,  Edward,  impatient  to  learn  the  art 
of  "pothooks"  as  quickly  as  possible,  supplemented  this 
instruction  by  a  course  given  on  two  other  evenings  at 
moderate  cost  by  a  Brooklyn  business  college.  As  the 
system  taught  in  both  classes  was  the  same,  more  rapid 
progress  was  possible,  and  the  two  teachers  were  con- 
stantly surprised  that  he  acquired  the  art  so  much  more 
quickly  than  the  other  students. 

Before  many  weeks  Edward  could  "stenograph" 
fairly  well,  and  as  the  typewriter  had  not  then  come 
into  its  own,  he  was  ready  to  put  his  knowledge  to 
practical  use. 

An  opportunity  offered  itself  when  the  city  editor  of 
the  Brooklyn  Eagle  asked  him  to  report  two  speeches 
at  a  New  England  Society  dinner.  The  speakers  were 
to  be  the  President  of  the  United  States,  General  Grant, 
General  Sherman,  Mr.  Evarts,  and  General  Sheridan. 
Edward  was  to  report  what   General  Grant  and   the 


30     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

President  said,  and  was  instructed  to  give  the  Presi- 
dent's speech  verbatim. 

At  the  close  of  the  dinner,  the  reporters  came  in  and 
Edward  was  seated  directly  in  front  of  the  President. 
In  those  days  when  a  public  dinner  included  several 
kinds  of  wine,  it  was  the  custom  to  serve  the  reporters 
with  wine,  and  as  the  glasses  were  placed  before  Edward's 
plate  he  realized  that  he  had  to  make  a  decision  then 
and  there.  He  had,  of  course,  constantly  seen  wine  on 
his  father's  table,  as  is  the  European  custom,  but  the 
boy  had  never  tasted  it.  He  decided  he  would  not  be- 
gin then,  when  he  needed  a  clear  head.  So,  in  order  to 
get  more  room  for  his  note-book,  he  asked  the  waiter  to 
remove  the  glasses. 

It  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever  attempted  to  report 
a  pubHc  address.  General  Grant's  remarks  were  few, 
as  usual,  and  as  he  spoke  slowly,  he  gave  the  young  re- 
porter no  trouble.  But  alas  for  his  stenographic  knowl- 
edge, when  President  Hayes  began  to  speak !  Edward 
worked  hard,  but  the  President  was  too  rapid  for  him; 
he  did  not  get  the  speech,  and  he  noticed  that  the  re- 
porters for  the  other  papers  fared  no  better.  Nothing 
daunted,  however,  after  the  speechmaking,  Edward  reso- 
lutely sought  the  President,  and  as  the  latter  turned  to 
him,  he  told  him  his  plight,  explained  it  was  his  first  im- 
portant "assignment,"  and  asked  if  he  could  possibly  be 
given  a  copy  of  the  speech  so  that  he  could  "beat"  the 
other  papers. 

The  President  looked  at  him  curiously  for  a  moment, 
and  then  said:  "Can  you  wait  a  few  minutes?" 

Edward  assured  him  that  he  could. 


A  PRESIDENTIAL  FRIEND  '  31 

After  fifteen  minute§  or  so  the  President  came  up  to 
where  the  boy  was  waiting,  and  said  abruptly: 

"Tell  me,  my  boy,  why  did  you  have  the  wine-glasses 
removed  from  your  place?" 

Edward  was  completely  taken  aback  at  the  question, 
but  he  explained  his  resolution  as  well  as  he  could. 

"Did  you  make  that  decision  this  evening?"  the 
President  asked. 

He  had. 

"What  is  your  name?"  the  President  next  inquired. 

He  was  told. 

"And  you  live,  where?" 

Edward  told  him. 

"Suppose  you  write  your  name  and  address  on  this 
card  for  me,"  said  the  President,  reaching  for  one  of  the 
place-cards  on  the  table. 

The  boy  did  so. 

"Now,  I  am  stopping  with  Mr.  A.  A.  Low,  on  Co- 
lumbia Heights.     Is  that  in  the  direction  of  your  home  ?  " 

It  was. 

"Suppose  you  go  with  me,  then,  in  my  carriage," 
said  the  President,  "and  I  will  give  you  my  speech." 

Edward  was  not  quite  sure  now  whether  he  was  on  his 
head  or  his  feet. 

As  he  drove  along  with  the  President  and  his  host, 
the  President  asked  the  boy  about  himself,  what  he  was 
doing,  etc.  On  arriving  at  Air.  Low's  house,  the  Presi- 
dent went  up-stairs,  and  in  a  few  moments  came  down 
with  his  speech  in  full,  written  in  his  own  hand.  Ed- 
ward assured  him  he  would  copy  it,  and  return  the  manu- 
script in  the  morning. 


32      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

The  President  took  out  his  watch.  It  was  then  after 
midnight.  Musing  a  moment,  he  said:  "You  say  you 
are  an  office  boy;  what  time  must  you  be  at  your  office ?  " 

"Half  past  eight,  sir." 

"Well,  good  night,"  he  said,  and  then,  as  if  it  were  a 
second  thought:  "By  the  way,  I  can  get  another  copy 
of  the  speech.  Just  turn  that  in  as  it  is,  if  they  can  read 
it." 

Afterward,  Edward  found  out  that,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  was  the  President's  only  copy.  Though  the 
boy  did  not  then  appreciate  this  act  of  consideration, 
his  instinct  fortunately  led  him  to  copy  the  speech  and 
leave  the  original  at  the  President's  stopping-place  in 
the  morning. 

And  for  all  his  trouble,  the  young  reporter  was 
amply  repaid  by  seeing  that  The  Eagle  was  the  only 
paper  which  had  a  verbatim  report  of  the  President's 
speech. 

But  the  day  was  not  yet  done ! 

That  evening,  upon  reaching  home,  what  was  the 
boy's  astonishment  to  find  the  following  note: 

My  dear  young  Friend: — 

I  have  been  telling  Mrs.  Hayes  this  morning  of  what  you 
told  me  at  the  dinner  last  evening,  and  she  was  very  much 
interested.     She  would  like  to  see  you,  and  joins  me  in  asking 
if  you  will  call  upon  us  this  evening  at  eight-thirty. 
Very  faithfully  yours, 

Rutherford  B.  Hayes. 

Edward  had  not  risen  to  the  possession  of  a  suit  of 
evening  clothes,  and  distinctly  felt  its  lack  for  this  occa- 


A  PRESIDENTIAL  FRIEND  ^^ 

sion.  But,  dressed  in  the  best  he  had,  he  set  out,  at 
eight  o'clock,  to  call  on  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  his  wife ! 

He  had  no  sooner  handed  his  card  to  the  butler  than 
that  dignitary,  looking  at  it,  announced:  "The  President 
and  Mrs.  Hayes  are  waiting  for  you!"  The  ring  of 
those  magic  words  still  sounds  in  Edward's  ears:  ''The 
President  and  Mrs.  Hayes  are  waiting  for  you!" — 
and  he  a  boy  of  sixteen ! 

Edward  had  not  been  in  the  room  ten  minutes  be- 
fore he  was  made  to  feel  as  thoroughly  at  ease  as  if  he 
were  sitting  in  his  own  home  before  an  open  fire  with  his 
father  and  mother.  Skilfully  the  President  drew  from 
him  the  story  of  his  youthful  hopes  and  ambitions,  and 
before  the  boy  knew  it  he  was  teUing  the  President  and 
his  wife  all  about  his  precious  Encyclopcedia,  his  evening 
with  General  Grant,  and  his  efforts  to  become  some- 
thing more  than  an  office  boy.  No  boy  had  ever  so 
gracious  a  listener  before;  no  mother  could  have  been 
more  tenderly  motherly  than  the  woman  who  sat  op- 
posite him  and  seemed  so  honestly  interested  in  all  that 
he  told.  Not  for  a  moment  during  all  those  two  hours 
was  he  allowed  to  remember  that  his  host  and  hostess 
were  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  first 
lady  of  the  land ! 

That  evening  was  the  first  of  many  thus  spent  as  the 
years  rolled  by;  unexpected  little  courtesies  came  from 
the  White  House,  and  later  from  "Spiegel  Grove"; 
a  constant  and  unflagging  interest  followed  each  under- 
taking on  which  the  boy  embarked.  Opportunities 
were  opened  to  him;  acquaintances  were  made  possible; 


34     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

a  letter  came  almost  every  month  until  that  last  little 
note,  late  in  1892: 

X         f  c/<inrt*iZ^    ^Vw^^C/CA^  ^^'h***.^!^^ 

The  simple  act  of  turning  down  his  wine-glasses  had 
won  for  Edward  Bok  two  gracious  friends. 

The  passion  for  autograph  collecting  was  now  lead- 
ing Edward  to  read  the  authors  whom  he  read  about. 
He  had  become  attached  to  the  works  of  the  New  Eng- 
land group:  Longfellow,  Holmes,  and,  particularly, 
of  Emerson.  The  philosophy  of  the  Concord  sage  made 
a  peculiarly  strong  appeal  to  the  young  mind,  and  a 
small  copy  of  Emerson's  essays  was  always  in  Edward's 
pocket  on  his  long  stage  or  horse-car  rides  to  his  office 
and  back. 

He  noticed  that  these  New  England  authors  rarely 
visited  New  York,  or,  if  they  did,  their  presence  was  not 
heralded  by  the  newspapers  among  the  ''distinguished 
arrivals."  He  had  a  great  desire  personally  to  meet 
these  writers;  and,  having  saved  a  little  money,  he  de- 
cided to  take  his  week's  summer  vacation  in  the  winter, 
when  he  knew  he  should  be  more  likely  to  find  the  peo- 
ple of  his  quest  at  home,  and  to  spend  his  savings  on  a 


A  BOSTON  PILGRIMAGE  35 

trip  to  Boston.  He  had  never  been  away  from  home, 
so  this  trip  was  a  momentous  affair. 

He  arrived  in  Boston  on  Sunday  evening;  and  the 
first  thing  he  did  was  to  despatch  a  note,  by  messenger, 
to  Doctor  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  announcing  the  im- 
portant fact  that  he  was  there,  and  what  his  errand  was, 
and  asking  whether  he  might  come  up  and  see  Doctor 
Holmes  any  time  the  next  day.  Edward  naively  told 
him  that  he  could  come  as  early  as  Doctor  Holmes 
liked — by  breakfast-time,  he  was  assured,  as  Edward 
was  all  alone!  Doctor  Holmes's  amusement  at  this 
ingenuous  note  may  be  imagined. 

Within  the  hour  the  boy  brought  back  this  answer : 

My  dear  Boy: 

I  shall  certainly  look  for  you  to-morrow  morning  at  eight 
o'clock  to  have  a  piece  of  pie  with  me.  That  is  real  New 
England,  you  know. 

Very  cordially  yours, 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

Edward  was  there  at  eight  o'clock.  Strictly  speaking, 
he  was  there  at  seven-thirty,  and  found  the  author  al- 
ready at  his  desk  in  that  room  overlooking  the  Charles 
River,  which  he  learned  in  after  years  to  know  better. 

"Well,"  was  the  cheery  greeting,  "you  couldn't  wait 
until  eight  for  your  breakfast,  could  you?  Neither 
could  I  when  I  was  a  boy.  I  used  to  have  my  break- 
fast at  seven,"  and  then  telling  the  boy  all  about  his 
boyhood,  the  cheery  poet  led  him  to  the  dining-room, 
and  for  the  first  time  he  breakfasted  away  from  home 
and  ate  pie — and  that  with  "The  Autocrat"  at  his  own 
breakfast-table ! 


36     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

A  cosier  time  no  boy  could  have  had.  Just  the  two 
were  there,  and  the  smiling  face  that  looked  out  over 
the  plates  and  cups  gave  the  boy  courage  to  tell  all 
that  this  trip  was  going  to  mean  to  him. 

"And  you  have  come  on  just  to  see  us,  have  you?" 
chuckled  the  poet.  "Now,  tell  me,  what  good  do  you 
think  you  will  get  out  of  it?" 

He  was  told  what  the  idea  was:  that  every  success- 
ful man  had  something  to  tell  a  boy,  that  would  be 
likely  to  help  him,  and  that  Edward  wanted  to  see  the 
men  who  had  written  the  books  that  people  enjoyed. 
Doctor  Holmes  could  not  conceal  his  amusement  at  all 
this. 

When  breakfast  was  finished,  Doctor  Holmes  said: 
"Do  you  know  that  I  am  a  full-fledged  carpenter? 
No?    Well,  I  am.    Come  into  my  carpenter-shop." 

And  he  led  the  way  into  a  front-basement  room  where 
was  a  complete  carpenter's  outfit. 

"You  know  I  am  a  doctor,"  he  explained,  "and  this 
shop  is  my  medicine.  I  believe  that  every  man  must 
have  a  hobby  that  is  as  different  from  his  regular  work 
as  it  is  possible  to  be.  It  is  not  good  for  a  man  to  work 
all  the  time  at  one  thing.  So  this  is  my  hobby.  This 
is  my  change.  I  like  to  putter  away  at  these  things. 
Every  day  I  try  to  come  down  here  for  an  hour  or  so. 
It  rests  me  because  it  gives  my  mind  a  complete  change. 
For,  whether  you  beheve  it  or  not,"  he  added  with  his 
inimitable  chuckle,  "to  make  a  poem  and  to  make  a 
chair  are  two  very  different  things." 

"Now,"  he  continued,  "if  you  think  you  can  learn 
something  from  me,  learn  that  and  remember  it  when 


A  BOSTON  PILGRIMAGE  37 

you  are  a  man.  Don't  keep  always  at  your  business, 
whatever  it  may  be.  It  makes  no  difference  how  much 
you  Hke  it.  The  more  you  Uke  it,  the  more  dangerous  it 
is.  When  you  grow  up  you  will  understand  what  I  mean 
by  an  'outlet' — a  hobby,  that  is — in  your  life,  and  it 
must  be  so  different  from  your  regular  work  that  it  will 
take  your  thoughts  into  an  entirely  different  direction. 
We  doctors  call  it  a  safety-valve,  and  it  is.  I  would 
much  rather,"  concluded  the  poet,  "you  would  forget 
all  that  I  have  ever  written  than  that  you  should  for- 
get what  I  tell  you  about  having  a  safety-valve." 

"And  now  do  you  know,"  smilingly  said  the  poet, 
"about  the  Charles  River  here?"  as  they  returned  to 
his  study  and  stood  before  the  large  bay  window.  "I 
love  this  river,"  he  said.  "Yes,  I  love  it,"  he  repeated; 
"love  it  in  summer  or  in  winter."  And  then  he  was 
quiet  for  a  minute  or  so. 

Edward  asked  him  which  of  his  poems  were  his  fa- 
vorites. 

"Well,"  he  said  musingly,  "I  think  'The  Chambered 
Nautilus'  is  my  most  finished  piece  of  work,  and  I  sup- 
pose it  is  my  favorite.  But  there  are  also  'The  Voice- 
less,' 'My  Aviary,'  written  at  this  ^andow,  'The  Bat- 
tle of  Bunker  Hill,'  and  'Dorothy  Q,'  written  to  the 
portrait  of  my  great-grandmother  which  you  see  on  the 
wall  there.  All  these  I  have  a  liking  for,  and  when  I 
speak  of  the  poems  I  like  best  there  are  two  others  that 
ought  to  be  included — 'The  Silent  Melody'  and  'The 
Last  Leaf.'    I  think  these  are  among  my  best." 

"What  is  the  history  of  'The  Chambered  Nau- 
tilus'? "  Edward  asked. 


38      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

'*It  has  none,"  came  the  reply,  "it  wrote  itself.  So, 
too,  did  'The  One-Hoss  Shay.'  That  was  one  of  those 
random  conceptions  that  gallop  through  the  brain,  and 
that  you  catch  by  the  bridle.  I  caught  it  and  reined  it. 
That  is  aU." 

Just  then  a  maid  brought  in  a  parcel,  and  as  Doctor 
Holmes  opened  it  on  his  desk  he  smiled  over  at  the  boy 
and  said: 

"Well,  I  declare,  if  you  haven't  come  just  at  the 
right  time.  See  those  little  books?  Aren't  they  wee?" 
and  he  handed  the  boy  a  set  of  three  Uttle  books,  six 
inches  by  four  in  size,  beautifully  bound  in  half  levant. 
They  were  his  "Autocrat"  in  one  volume,  and  his 
better-known  poems  in  two  volumes. 

"This  is  a  little  fancy  of  mine,"  he  said.  "My  pub- 
lishers, to  please  me,  have  gotten  out  this  tiny  w^ee  set. 
And  here,"  as  he  counted  the  little  sets,  "they  have  sent 
me  six  sets.  Are  they  not  exquisite  little  things?"  and 
he  fondled  them  with  loving  glee.  "Lucky,  too,  for 
me  that  they  should  happen  to  come  now,  for  I  have 
been  wondering  what  I  could  give  you  as  a  souvenir  of 
your  visit  to  me,  and  here  it  is,  sure  enough !  My  pub- 
lishers must  have  guessed  you  were  here  and  my  mind 
at  the  same  time.  Now,  if  you  would  like  it,  you  shall 
carry  home  one  of  these  little  sets,  and  I'll  just  write  a 
piece  from  one  of  my  poems  and  your  name  on  the  fly- 
leaf of  each  volume.     You  say  you  like  that  Uttle  verse : 

"'A  few  can  touch  the  magic  string.' 

Then  I'll  write  those  four  lines  in  this  volume."    And 
he  did. 


A  BOSTON  PILGRIMAGE  39 

As  each  little  volume  went  under  the  poet's  pen  Ed- 
ward said,  as  his  heart  swelled  in  gratitude: 

"Doctor  Holmes,  you  are  a  man  of  the  rarest  sort  to 
be  so  good  to  a  boy," 

The  pen  stopped,  the  poet  looked  out  on  the  Charles 

,y^hLU  ^&u>r  *^a^^  c, ^rH*tC^  '*^  /^(^  -. 

a  moment,  and  then,  turning  to  the  boy  with  a  little 
moisture  in  his  eye,  he  said: 

"No,  my  boy,  I  am  not;  but  it  does  an  old  man's 
heart  good  to  hear  you  say  it.  It  means  much  to  those 
on  the  down-hUl  side  to  be  well  thought  of  by  the  young 
who  are  coming  up." 

As  he  wiped  his  gold  pen,  with  its  swan-quill  holder, 
and  laid  it  down,  he  said: 

"That's  the  pen  with  which  I  wrote  'Elsie  Venner' 
and  the  'Autocrat'  papers.    I  try  to  take  care  of  it." 

"You  say  you  are  going  from  me  over  to  see  Long- 
fellow?" he  continued,  as  he  reached  out  once  more  for 
the  pen.  "Well,  then,  would  you  mind  if  I  gave  you  a 
letter  for  him?    I  have  something  to  send  him." 

Sly  but  kindly  old  gentleman!  The  "something"  he 
had  to  send  Longfellow  was  Edward  himself,  although 
the  boy  did  not  see  through  the  subterfuge  at  that  time. 

"And  now,  if  you  are  going,  I'll  walk  along  with  you 
if  you  don't  mind,  for  I'm  going  down  to  Park  Street  to 


40     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

thank  my  publishers  for  these  little  books,  and  that  lies 
along  your  way  to  the  Cambridge  car." 

As  the  two  walked  along  Beacon  Street,  Doctor 
Holmes  pointed  out  the  residences  where  lived  people  of 
interest,  and  when  they  reached  the  Public  Garden  he 
said: 

"You  must  come  over  in  the  spring  some  time,  and 
see  the  tulips  and  croci  and  hyacinths  here.  They  are 
so  beautiful. 

"Now,  here  is  your  car,"  he  said  as  he  hailed  a  com- 
ing horse-car.  "Before  you  go  back  you  must  come  and 
see  me  and  tell  me  all  the  people  you  have  seen;  will  you  ? 
I  should  like  to  hear  about  them.  I  may  not  have  more 
books  coming  in,  but  I  might  have  a  very  good-looking 
photograph  of  a  very  old-looking  little  man,"  he  said 
as  his  eyes  twinkled.  "  Give  my  love  to  Longfellow  when 
you  see  him,  and  don't  forget  to  give  him  my  letter, 
you  know.    It  is  about  a  very  important  matter." 

And  when  the  boy  had  ridden  a  mile  or  so  with  his  fare 
in  his  hand  he  held  it  out  to  the  conductor,  who  grinned 
and  said: 

"That's  all  right.  Doctor  Holmes  paid  me  your  fare, 
and  I'm  going  to  keep  that  nickel  if  I  lose  my  job  for 
it." 


CHAPTER  V 
GOING  TO  THE  THEATRE  WITH  LONGFELLOW 

When  Edward  Bok  stood  before  the  home  of  Long- 
fellow, he  realized  that  he  was  to  see  the  man  around 
whose  head  the  boy's  youthful  reading  had  cast  a  sort 
of  halo.  And  when  he  saw  the  head  itself  he  had  a 
feeling  that  he  could  see  the  halo.  No  kindlier  pair  of 
eyes  ever  looked  at  a  boy,  as,  with  a  smile,  "the  white 
Mr.  Longfellow,"  as  Mr.  Ho  wells  had  called  him,  held 
out  his  hand. 

"I  am  very  glad  to  see  you,  my  boy,"  were  his  first 
words,  and  with  them  he  won  the  boy.  Edward  smiled 
back  at  the  poet,  and  immediately  the  two  were  friends. 

"I  have  been  taking  a  walk  this  beautiful  morning," 
he  said  next,  *'and  am  a  little  late  getting  at  my  mail. 
Suppose  you  come  in  and  sit  at  my  desk  with  me,  and 
we  will  see  what  the  postman  has  brought.  He  brings 
me  so  many  good  things,  you  know." 

"Now,  here  is  a  little  girl,"  he  said,  as  he  sat  down  at 
the  desk  with  the  boy  beside  him,  "who  wants  my  au- 
tograph and  a  'sentiment.'  What  sentiment,  I  wonder, 
shall  I  send  her?" 

"Why  not  send  her  'Let  us,  then,  be  up  and  doing' ?  " 
suggested  the  boy.  "That's  what  I  should  like  if  I  were 
she." 

"Should  you,  indeed?"  said  Longfellow.    "That  is  a 

41 


42      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

good  suggestion.  Now,  suppose  you  recite  it  off  to  me, 
so  that  I  shall  not  have  to  look  it  up  in  my  books,  and 
I  will  write  as  you  recite.  But  slowly;  you  know  I  am 
an  old  man,  and  write  slowly." 

Edward  thought  it  strange  that  Longfellow  himself 
should  not  know  his  own  great  words  without  looking 
them  up.  But  he  recited  the  four  lines,  so  familiar  to 
every  schoolboy,  and  when  the  poet  had  finished  writ- 
ing them,  he  said: 

"Good !  I  see  you  have  a  memory.  Now,  suppose  I 
copy  these  lines  once  more  for  the  little  girl,  and  give 
you  this  copy  ?  Then  you  can  say,  you  know,  that  you 
dictated  my  own  poetry  to  me." 

Of  course  Edward  was  delighted,  and  Longfellow 
gave  him  the  sheet  as  it  is  here: 


%■ 


LAqa/n/v^V^j  .  «yovvc^AH««». 


Then,  as  the  fine  head  bent  down  to  copy  the  lines 
once  more,  Edward  ventured  to  say  to  him: 

''I  should  think  it  would  keep  you  busy  if  you  did 
this  for  every  one  who  asked  you." 

''Well,"  said  the  poet,  ''you  see,  I  am  not  so  busy  a 
man  as  I  was  some  years  ago,  and  I  shouldn't  like  to 
disappoint  a  little  girl;  should  you?" 

As  he  took  up  his  letters  again,  he  discovered  five 


TO  THE  THEATRE  WITH  LONGFELLOW    43 

more  requests  for  his  autograph.  At  each  one  he  reached 
into  a  drawer  in  his  desk,  took  a  card,  and  wrote  his 
name  on  it. 

"There  are  a  good  many  of  these  every  day,"  said 
Longfellow,  "but  I  always  like  to  do  this  little  favor. 
It  is  so  little  to  do,  to  write  your  name  on  a  card;  and  if 
I  didn't  do  it  some  boy  or  girl  might  be  looking,  day  by 
day,  for  the  postman  and  be  disappointed.  I  only  wish 
I  could  write  my  name  better  for  them.  You  see  how 
I  break  my  letters  ?  That's  because  I  never  took  pains 
with  my  writing  when  I  was  a  boy.  I  don't  think  I 
should  get  a  high  mark  for  penmanship  if  I  were  at 
school,  do  you?" 

"I  see  you  get  letters  from  Europe,"  said  the  boy,  as 
Longfellow  opened  an  envelope  with  a  foreign  stamp 
on  it. 

"Yes,  from  all  over  the  world,"  said  the  poet.  Then, 
looking  at  the  boy  quickly,  he  said:  "Do  you  collect 
postage-stamps  ?  " 

Edward  said  he  did. 

"Well,  I  have  some  right  here,  then,"  and  going  to  a 
drawer  in  a  desk  he  took  out  a  bundle  of  letters,  and  cut 
out  the  postage-stamps  and  gave  them  to  the  boy. 

"There's  one  from  the  Netherlands.  There's  where  I 
was  born,"  Edward  ventured  to  say. 

"In  the  Netherlands?  Then  you  are  a  real  Dutch- 
man. Well!  Well!"  he  said,  laying  down  his  pen. 
"Can  you  read  Dutch?" 

The  boy  said  he  could. 

"Then,"  said  the  poet,  "you  are  just  the  boy  I  am 
looking  for."     And  going  to  a  bookcase  behind  him  he 


44     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

brought  out  a  book,  and  handing  it  to  the  boy,  he  said, 
his  eyes  laughing:  "Can  you  read  that?" 

It  was  an  edition  of  Longfellow's  poems  in  Dutch. 

"Yes,  indeed,"  said  Edward.  "These  are  your  poems 
in  Dutch." 

"That's  right,"  he  said.  "Now,  this  is  delightful.  I 
am  so  glad  you  came.  I  received  this  book  last  week, 
and  although  I  have  been  in  the  Netherlands,  I  cannot 
speak  or  read  Dutch.  I  wonder  whether  you  would 
read  a  poem  to  me  and  let  me  hear  how  it  sounds." 

So  Edward  took  "The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs,"  and 
read  it  to  him. 

The  poet's  face  beamed  with  delight.  "That's  beau- 
tiful," he  said,  and  then  quickly  added:  "I  mean  the 
language,  not  the  poem." 

"Now,"  he  went  on,  "I'll  tell  you  what  we'll  do: 
we'll  strike  a  bargain.  We  Yankees  are  great  for  bar- 
gains, you  know.  If  you  will  read  me  'The  Village 
Blacksmith'  you  can  sit  in  that  chair  there  made  out 
of  the  wood  of  the  old  spreading  chestnut- tree,  and  I'll 
take  you  out  and  show  you  where  the  old  shop  stood. 
Is  that  a  bargain?" 

Edward  assured  him  it  was.  He  sat  in  the  chair  of 
wood  and  leather,  and  read  to  the  poet  several  of 
his  own  poems  in  a  language  in  which,  when  he  wrote 
them,  he  never  dreamed  they  would  ever  be  printed. 
He  was  very  quiet.  Finally  he  said:  "It  seems  so  odd, 
so  very  odd,  to  hear  something  you  know  so  well  sound 
so  strange." 

"It's  a  great  compliment,  though,  isn't  it,  sir?"  asked 
the  boy. 


Q 

o 
c 


C 

•■J  o 

< 

^■AJS 

—     w.  C 

-  is^ 


Si    2w 


TO  THE  THEATRE  WITH  LONGFELLOW    45 

"Ye-es,"  said  the  poet  slowly.  "Yes,  yes,"  he  added 
quickly.    "It  is,  my  boy,  a  very  great  compliment." 

"Ah,"  he  said,  rousing  himself,  as  a  maid  appeared, 
"that  means  luncheon,  or  rather,"  he  added,  "it  means 
dinner,  for  we  have  dinner  in  the  old  New  England 
fashion,  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  I  am  all  alone  to- 
day, and  you  must  keep  me  company;  will  you?  Then 
afterward  we'll  go  and  take  a  walk,  and  I'll  show  you 
Cambridge.  It  is  such  a  beautiful  old  town,  even  more 
beautiful,  I  sometimes  think,  when  the  leaves  are  off 
the  trees. 

"Come,"  he  said,  "I'll  take  you  up-stairs,  and  you  can 
wash  your  hands  in  the  room  where  George  Washing- 
ton slept.  And  comb  your  hair,  too,  if  you  want  to,"  he 
added;  "only  it  isn't  the  same  comb  that  he  used." 

To  the  boyish  mind  it  was  an  historic  breaking  of 
bread,  that  midday  meal  with  Longfellow. 

"Can  you  say  grace  in  Dutch?"  he  asked,  as  they  sat 
down;  and  the  boy  did. 

"Well,"  the  poet  declared,  "I  never  expected  to  hear 
that  at  my  table.    I  like  the  sound  of  it." 

Then  while  the  boy  told  all  that  he  knew  about  the 
Netherlands,  the  poet  told  the  boy  all  about  his  poems. 
Edward  said  he  liked  "Hiawatha." 

"So  do  I,"  he  said.  "But  I  think  I  like  'Evangehne' 
better.  Still,"  he  added,  "neither  one  is  as  good  as  it 
should  be.  But  those  are  the  things  you  see  afterward 
so  much  better  than  you  do  at  the  time." 

It  was  a  great  event  for  Edward  when,  with  the  poet 
nodding  and  smiling  to  every  boy  and  man  he  met,  and 
lifting  his  hat  to  every  woman  and  little  girl,  he  walked 


46      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

through  the  fine  old  streets  of  Cambridge  with  Long- 
fellow. At  one  point  of  the  walk  they  came  to  a  the- 
atrical bill-board  announcing  an  attraction  that  evening 
at  the  Boston  Theatre.  Skilfully  the  old  poet  drew  out 
from  Edward  that  sometimes  he  went  to  the  theatre  with 
his  parents.  As  they  returned  to  the  gate  of  "Craigie 
House"  Edward  said  he  thought  he  would  go  back  to 
Boston. 

"And  what  have  you  on  hand  for  this  evening?" 
asked  Longfellow. 

Edward  told  him  he  was  going  to  his  hotel  to  think 
over  the  day's  events. 

The  poet  laughed  and  said: 

"Now,  listen  to  my  plan.  Boston  is  strange  to  you. 
Now  we're  going  to  the  theatre  this  evening,  and  my 
plan  is  that  you  come  in  now,  have  a  little  supper  with 
us,  and  then  go  with  us  to  see  the  play.  It  is  a  funny 
play,  and  a  good  laugh  will  do  you  more  good  than  to 
sit  in  a  hotel  all  by  yourself.    Now,  what  do  you  think  ?  " 

Of  course  the  boy  thought  as  Longfellow  did,  and  it 
was  a  very  happy  boy  that  evening  who,  in  full  view  of 
the  large  audience  in  the  immense  theatre,  sat  in  that 
box.  It  was,  as  Longfellow  had  said,  a  play  of  laughter, 
and  just  who  laughed  louder,  the  poet  or  the  boy, 
neither  ever  knew. 

Between  the  acts  there  came  into  the  box  a  man  of 
courtly  presence,  dignified  and  yet  gently  courteous. 

"Ah!  Phillips,"  said  the  poet,  "how  are  you?  You 
must  know  my  young  friend  here.  This  is  Wendell 
Phillips,  my  boy.  Here  is  a  young  man  who  told  me 
to-day  that  he  was  going  to  call  on  you  and  on  Phillips 


TO  THE  THEATRE  WITH  LONGFELLOW         47 

Brooks  to-morrow.  Now  you  know  him  before  he  comes 
to  you." 

"I  shall  be  glad  to  see  you,  my  boy,"  said  Mr.  Phil- 
lips. "And  so  you  are  going  to  see  Phillips  Brooks? 
Let  me  tell  you  something  about  Brooks.  He  has  a 
great  many  books  in  his  library  which  are  full  of  his 
marks  and  comments.  Now,  when  you  go  to  see  him 
you  ask  him  to  let  you  see  some  of  those  books,  and 
then,  when  he  isn't  looking,  you  put  a  couple  of  them  in 
your  pocket.  They  would  make  splendid  souvenirs, 
and  he  has  so  many  he  would  never  miss  them.  You  do 
it,  and  then  when  you  come  to  see  me  tell  me  all  about 
it." 

And  he  and  Longfellow  smiled  broadly. 

An  hour  later,  when  Longfellow  dropped  Edward  at 
his  hotel,  he  had  not  only  a  wonderful  day  to  think  over 
but  another  wonderful  day  to  look  forward  to  as  well ! 

He  had  breakfasted  with  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes; 
dined,  supped,  and  been  to  the  theatre  mth  Longfellow; 
and  to-morrow  he  was  to  spend  with  Phillips  Brooks, 

Boston  was  a  great  place,  Edward  Bok  thought,  as  he 
fell  asleep. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS'S  BOOKS  AND  EMERSON'S  MENTAL 

MIST 

No  one  who  called  at  Phillips  Brooks's  house  was 
ever  told  that  the  master  of  the  house  was  out  when  he 
was  in.  That  was  a  rule  laid  down  by  Doctor  Brooks: 
a  maid  was  not  to  perjure  herself  for  her  master's  com- 
fort or  convenience.  Therefore,  when  Edward  was 
told  that  Doctor  Brooks  was  out,  he  knew  he  was  out. 
The  boy  waited,  and  as  he  waited  he  had  a  chance  to 
look  around  the  library  and  into  the  books.  The  rec- 
tor's faithful  housekeeper  said  he  might  when  he  re- 
peated what  Wendell  Phillips  had  told  him  of  the  in- 
terest that  was  to  be  found  in  her  master's  books. 
Edward  did  not  tell  her  of  Mr.  Phillips's  advice  to  "bor- 
row" a  couple  of  books.  He  reserved  that  bit  of  in- 
formation for  the  rector  of  Trinity  when  he  came  in, 
an  hour  later. 

"Oh!  did  he?"  laughingly  said  Doctor  Brooks. 
"That  is  nice  advice  for  a  man  to  give  a  boy.  I  am 
surprised  at  Wendell  Phillips.  He  needs  a  little  talk: 
a  ministerial  visit.  And  have  you  followed  his  shame- 
less advice?"  smilingly  asked  the  huge  man  as  he  towered 
above  the  boy.  "No?  And  to  think  of  the  oppor- 
tunity you  had,  too.     Well,  I  am  glad  you  had  such 

respect  for  my  dumb  friends.    For  they  are  my  friends, 

48 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS'S  BOOKS  49 

each  one  of  them,"  he  continued,  as  he  looked  fondly  at 
the  filled  shelves.  "Yes,  I  know  them  all,  and  love 
each  for  its  own  sake.  Take  this  little  volume,"  and 
he  picked  up  a  little  volume  of  Shakespeare.  "Why,  we 
are  the  best  of  friends :  we  have  travelled  miles  together 
— all  over  the  world,  as  a  matter  of  fact.  It  knows  me 
in  all  my  moods,  and  responds  to  each,  no  matter  how 
irritable  I  am.  Yes,  it  is  pretty  badly  marked  up  now, 
for  a  fact,  isn't  it?  Black;  I  never  thought  of  that 
before  that  it  doesn't  make  a  book  look  any  better  to 
the  eye.  But  it  means  more  to  me  because  of  all  that 
pencilling. 

"Now,  some  folks  dislike  my  use  of  my  books  in  this 
way.  They  love  their  books  so  much  that  they  think 
it  nothing  short  of  sacrilege  to  mark  up  a  book.  But 
to  me  that's  like  having  a  child  so  prettily  dressed  that 
you  can't  romp  and  play  with  it.  What  is  the  good  of  a 
book,  I  say,  if  it  is  too  pretty  for  use?  I  like  to  have 
my  books  speak  to  me,  and  then  I  like  to  talk  back  to 
them. 

"Take  my  Bible,  here,"  he  continued,  as  he  took  up 
an  old  and  much- worn  copy  of  the  book.  "I  have  a 
number  of  copies  of  the  Great  Book:  one  copy  I  preach 
from ;  another  I  minister  from ;  but  this  is  my  own  per- 
sonal copy,  and  into  it  I  talk  and  talk.  See  how  I 
talk,"  and  he  opened  the  Book  and  showed  interleaved 
pages  full  of  comments  in  his  handwriting.  "There's 
where  St.  Paul  and  I  had  an  argument  one  day.  Yes, 
it  was  a  long  argument,  and  I  don't  know  now  who 
won,"  he  added  smilingly.  "But  then,  no  one  ever 
wins  in  an  argument,  anyway;  do  you  think  so? 


50     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

"You  see,"  went  on  the  preacher,  "I  put  into  these 
books  what  other  men  put  into  articles  and  essays  for 
magazines  and  papers.  I  never  write  for  pubHcations. 
I  always  think  of  my  church  when  something  comes  to 
me  to  say.  There  is  always  danger  of  a  man  spread- 
ing himself  out  thin  if  he  attempts  too  much,  you 
know." 

Doctor  Brooks  must  have  caught  the  boy's  eye,  which, 
as  he  said  this,  naturally  surveyed  his  great  frame,  for  he 
regarded  him  in  an  amused  way,  and  putting  his  hands 
on  his  girth,  he  said  laughingly:  "You  are  thinking  I 
would  have  to  do  a  great  deal  to  spread  myself  out  thin, 
aren't  you?" 

The  boy  confessed  he  was,  and  the  preacher  laughed 
one  of  those  deep  laughs  of  his  that  were  so  infec- 
tious. 

"But  here  I  am  talking  about  myself.  Tell  me  some- 
thing about  yourself  ?^^ 

And  when  the  boy  told  his  object  in  "coming  to  Bos- 
ton, the  rector  of  Trinity  Church  was  immensely 
amused. 

"Just  to  see  us  fellows!  Well,  and  how  do  you  like 
us  so  far?" 

And  in  the  most  comfortable  way  this  true  gentle- 
man went  on  until  the  boy  mentioned  that  he  must  be 
keeping  him  from  his  work. 

"Not  at  all;  not  at  all,"  was  the  quick  and  hearty 
response.  "Not  a  thing  to  do.  I  cleaned  up  all  my 
mail  before  I  had  my  breakfast  this  morning. 

"These  letters,  you  mean?"  he  said,  as  the  boy 
pointed  to  some  letters  on  his  desk  unopened.     "Oh, 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS'S  BOOKS  51 

yes !  Well,  they  must  have  come  in  a  later  mail.  Well, 
if  it  will  make  you  feel  any  better  I'll  go  through  them, 
and  you  can  go  through  my  books  if  you  like.  I'll 
trust  you,"  he  added  laughingly,  as  Wendell  Phillips's 
advice  occurred  to  him. 

"You  like  books,  you  say?"  he  went  on,  as  he  opened 
his  letters.  "Well,  then,  you  must  come  into  my 
library  here  at  any  time  you  are  in  Boston,  and  spend  a 
morning  reading  anything  I  have  that  you  like.  Young 
men  do  that,  you  know,  and  I  like  to  have  them.  What's 
the  use  of  good  friends  if  you  don't  share  them  ?  There's 
where  the  pleasure  comes  in." 

He  asked  the  boy  then  about  his  newspaper  work: 
how  much  it  paid  him,  and  whether  he  felt  it  helped  him 
in  an  educational  way.  The  boy  told  him  he  thought  it 
did;  that  it  furnished  good  lessons  in  the  study  of  hu- 
man nature. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "I  can  believe  that,  so  long  as  it  is 
good  journalism." 

Edward  told  him  that  he  sometimes  wrote  for  the 
Sunday  paper,  and  asked  the  preacher  what  he  thought 
of  that. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "that  is  not  a  crime." 

The  boy  asked  him  if  he,  then,  favored  the  Sunday 
paper  more  than  did  some  other  clergymen. 

"There  is  always  good  in  everything,  I  think,"  re- 
plied Phillips  Brooks.  "A  thing  must  be  pretty  bad 
that  hasn't  some  good  in  it."  Then  he  stopped,  and 
after  a  moment  went  on:  "Aly  idea  is  that  the  fate  of 
Sunday  newspapers  rests  very  much  with  Sunday  edi- 
tors.    There   is    a    Sunday    newspaper    conceivable    in 


52     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

which  we  should  all  rejoice — all,  that  is,  who  do  not  hold 
that  a  Sunday  newspaper  is  always  and  per  se  wrong. 
But  some  cause  has,  in  many  instances,  brought  it  about 
that  the  Sunday  paper  is  below,  and  not  above,  the 
standard  of  its  weekday  brethren.  I  mean  it  is  apt  to 
be  more  gossipy,  more  personal,  mote  sensational,  more 
frivolous;  less  serious  and  thoughtful  and  suggestive. 
Taking  for  granted  the  fact  of  special  leisure  on  the 
part  of  its  readers,  it  is  apt  to  appeal  to  the  lower 
and  not  to  the  higher  part  of  them,  which  the  Sunday 
leisure  has  set  free.  Let  the  Sunday  newspaper  be 
worthy  of  the  day,  and  the  day  will  not  reject  it.  So 
I  say  its  fate  is  in  the  hands  of  its  editor.  He  can  give 
it  such  a  character  as  will  make  all  good  men  its  cham- 
pions and  friends,  or  he  can  preserve  for  it  the  suspicion 
and  dislike  in  which  it  stands  at  present." 

Edward's  journalistic  instinct  here  got  into  full  play; 
and  although,  as  he  assured  his  host,  he  had  had  no  such 
thought  in  coming,  he  asked  whether  Doctor  Brooks 
would  object  if  he  tried  his  reportorial  wings  by  experi- 
menting as  to  whether  he  could  report  the  talk. 

"I  do  not  like  the  papers  to  talk  about  me,"  was  the 
answer;  ''but  if  it  will  help  you,  go  ahead  and  practise 
on  me.  You  haven't  stolen  my  books  when  you  were 
told  to  do  so,  and  I  don't  think  you'll  steal  my  name." 

The  boy  went  back  to  his  hotel,  and  wrote  an  article 
much  as  this  account  is  here  written,  which  he  sent  to 
Doctor  Brooks.  ''Let  me  keep  it  by  me,"  the  doctor 
wrote,  "and  I  will  return  it  to  you  presently." 

And  he  did,  with  his  comment  on  the  Sunday  news- 
paper, just  as  it  is  given  here,  and  with  this  note: 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS'S  BOOKS  53 

^CLA/'^J     ^tJU^      ^?uajO       ^iu^     /dCojK^ 


As  he  let  the  boy  out  of  his  house,  at  the  end  of  that 
first  meeting,  he  said  to  him: 

"And  you're  going  from  me  now  to  see  Emerson?  I 
don't  know,"  he  added  reflectively,  "whether  you  will 
see  him  at  his  best.  Still,  you  may.  And  even  if  you 
do  not,  to  have  seen  him,  even  as  you  may  see  him,  is 
better,  in  a  way,  than  not  to  have  seen  him  at  all." 

Edward  did  not  know  what  Phillips  Brooks  meant. 
But  he  was,  sadly,  to  find  out  the  next  day, 

A  boy  of  sixteen  was  pretty  sure  of  a  welcome  from 
Louisa  Alcott,  and  his  greeting  from  her  was  spontane- 
ous and  sincere. 


54     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

"Why,  you  good  boy,"  she  said,  "to  come  all  the  way 
to  Concord  to  see  us,"  quite  for  all  the  world  as  if  she 
were  the  one  favored.  "Now  take  your  coat  ofif,  and 
come  right  in  by  the  fire." 

"Do  tell  me  all  about  your  visit,"  she  continued. 

Before  that  cozey  fire  they  chatted.  It  was  pleasant  to 
the  boy  to  sit  there  with  that  sweet-faced  woman  with 
those  kindly  eyes!  After  a  while  she  said:  "Now  I 
shall  put  on  my  coat  and  hat,  and  we  shall  walk  over  to 
Emerson's  house.  I  am  almost  afraid  to  promise  that 
you  will  see  him.  He  sees  scarcely  any  one  now.  He 
is  feeble,  and — "  She  did  not  finish  the  sentence. 
"But  we'll  walk  over  there,  at  any  rate." 

She  spoke  mostly  of  her  father  as  the  two  walked 
along,  and  it  was  easy  to  see  that  his  condition  was  now 
the  one  thought  of  her  life.  Presently  they  reached 
Emerson's  house,  and  Miss  Emerson  welcomed  them  at 
the  door.  After  a  brief  chat  Miss  Alcott  told  of  the 
boy's  hope.     Miss  Emerson  shook  her  head. 

"Father  sees  no  one  now,"  she  said,  "and  I  fear  it 
might  not  be  a  pleasure  if  you  did  see  him." 

Then  Edward  told  her  what  Phillips  Brooks  had  said. 

"WeU,"  she  said,  "I'll  see." 

She  had  scarcely  left  the  room  when  Miss  Alcott  rose 
and  followed  her,  saying  to  the  boy:  "You  shall  see  Mr. 
Emerson  if  it  is  at  all  possible." 

In  a  few  minutes  Miss  Alcott  returned,  her  eyes 
moistened,  and  simply  said:   "Come." 

The  boy  followed  her  through  two  rooms,  and  at  the 
threshold  of  the  third  Miss  Emerson  stood,  also  with 
moistened  eyes. 


EMERSON'S  MENTAL   MIST  55 

**  Father,"  she  said  simply,  and  there,  at  his  desk,  sat 
Emerson — the  man  whose  words  had  already  won  Ed- 
ward Bok's  boyish  interest,  and  who  was  destined  to 
impress  himself  upon  his  life  more  deeply  than  any  other 
writer. 

Slowly,  at  the  daughter's  spoken  word,  Emerson  rose 
with  a  wonderful  quiet  dignity,  extended  his  hand,  and 
as  the  boy's  hand  rested  in  his,  looked  him  full  in  the  eyes. 

No  Hght  of  welcome  came  from  those  sad  yet  tender 
eyes.  The  boy  closed  upon  the  hand  in  his  with  a  lov- 
ing pressure,  and  for  a  single  moment  the  eyelids  rose, 
a  different  look  came  into  those  eyes,  and  Edward  felt 
a  sUght,  perceptible  response  of  the  hand.  But  that  was 
all! 

Quietly  he  motioned  the  boy  to  a  chair  beside  the 
desk.  Edward  sat  down  and  was  about  to  say  some- 
thing, when,  instead  of  seating  himself,  Emerson  walked 
away  to  the  window  and  stood  there  softly  whistling 
and  looking  out  as  if  there  were  no  one  in  the  room. 
Edward's  eyes  had  followed  Emerson's  every  footstep, 
when  the  boy  was  aroused  by  hearing  a  suppressed  sob, 
and  as  he  looked  around  he  saw  that  it  came  from  IVIiss 
Emerson.  Slowly  she  walked  out  of  the  room.  The 
boy  looked  at  Miss  Alcott,  and  she  put  her  finger  to  her 
mouth,  indicating  silence.     He  was  nonplussed. 

Edward  looked  toward  Emerson  standing  in  that 
window,  and  wondered  what  it  all  meant.  Presently 
Emerson  left  the  window  and,  crossing  the  room,  came 
to  his  desk,  bowing  to  the  boy  as  he  passed,  and  seated 
himself,  not  speaking  a  word  and  ignoring  the  presence 
of  the  two  persons  in  the  room. 


56      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Suddenly  the  boy  heard  Miss  Alcott  say:  "Have  you 
read  this  new  book  by  Ruskin  yet?" 

Slowly  the  great  master  of  thought  lifted  his  eyes 
from  his  desk,  turned  toward  the  speaker,  rose  with 
stately  courtesy  from  his  chair,  and,  bowing  to  Miss 
Alcott,  said  with  great  deliberation:  "Did  you  speak 
to  me,  madam?" 

The  boy  was  dumfounded!  Louisa  Alcott,  his 
Louisa!  And  he  did  not  know  her!  Suddenly  the 
whole  sad  truth  flashed  upon  the  boy.  Tears  sprang 
into  Miss  Alcott's  eyes,  and  she  walked  to  the  other 
side  of  the  room.  The  boy  did  not  know  what  to  say 
or  do,  so  he  sat  silent.  With  a  deliberate  movement 
Emerson  resumed  his  seat,  and  slowly  his  eyes  roamed 
over  the  boy  sitting  at  the  side  of  the  desk.  He  felt 
he  should  say  something. 

"I  thought,  perhaps,  Mr.  Emerson,"  he  said,  "that 
you  might  be  able  to  favor  me  with  a  letter  from  Car- 
lyle." 

At  the  mention  of  the  name  Carlyle  his  eyes  lifted, 
and  he  asked:  "Carlyle,  did  you  say,  sir,  Carlyle?" 

"Yes,"  said  the  boy,  "Thomas  Carlyle." 

"Ye-es,"  Emerson  answered  slowly.  "To  be  sure, 
Carlyle.  Yes,  he  was  here  this  morning.  He  will  be 
here  again  to-morrow  morning,"  he  added  gleefully, 
almost  like  a  child. 

Then  suddenly:  "You  were  saying " 

Edward  repeated  his  request. 

"Oh,  I  think  so,  I  think  so,"  said  Emerson,  to  the 
boy's  astonishment.  "Let  me  see.  Yes,  here  in  this 
drawer  I  have  many  letters  from  Carlyle." 


EMERSON'S  MENTAL  MIST  57 

At  these  words  Miss  Alcott  came  from  the  other  part 
of  the  room,  her  wet  eyes  dancing  with  pleasure  and  her 
face  wreathed  in  smiles. 

"I  think  we  can  help  this  young  man;  do  you  not 
think  so,  Louisa?"  said  Emerson,  smiHng  toward  Miss 
Alcott.  The  whole  atmosphere  of  the  room  had  changed. 
How  different  the  expression  of  his  eyes  as  now  Emer- 
son looked  at  the  boy!  "And  you  have  come  all  the 
way  from  New  York  to  ask  me  that !"  he  said  smilingly 
as  the  boy  told  him  of  his  trip.  "Now,  let  us  see,"  he 
said,  as  he  delved  in  a  drawer  full  of  letters. 

For  a  moment  he  groped  among  letters  and  papers, 
and  then,  softly  closing  the  drawer,  he  began  that 
ominous  low  whistle  once  more,  luoked  inquiringly  at 
each,  and  dropped  his  eyes  straightway  to  the  papers 
before  him  on  his  desk.  It  was  to  be  only  for  a  few 
moments,  then !     Miss  Alcott  turned  away. 

The  boy  felt  the  interview  could  not  last  much  longer. 
So,  anxious  to  have  some  personal  souvenir  of  the  meet- 
ing, he  said:  "Mr.  Emerson,  will  you  be  so  good  as  to 
write  your  name  in  this  book  for  me?"  and  he  brought 
out  an  album  he  had  in  his  pocket. 

"Name?"  he  asked  vaguely. 

"Yes,  please,"  said  the  boy,  "your  name:  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson." 

But  the  sound  of  the  name  brought  no  response  from 
the  eyes. 

"Please  write  out  the  name  you  want,"  he  said  finally, 
"and  I  will  copy  it  for  you  if  I  can." 

It  was  hard  for  the  boy  to  believe  his  own  senses. 


S8     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

But  picking  up  a  pen  he  wrote :  "Ralph  Waldo  Emerson, 
Concord;   November  22,  1881." 

Emerson  looked  at  it,  and  said  mournfully:  "Thank 
you."  Then  he  picked  up  the  pen,  and  writing  the  single 
letter  "R"  stopped,  followed  his  finger  until  it  reached 
the  "W"  of  Waldo,  and  studiously  copied  letter  by 
letter!  At  the  word  "Concord"  he  seemed  to  hesitate, 
as  if  the  task  were  too  great,  but  finally  copied  again, 
letter  by  letter,  until  the  second  "c"  was  reached. 
"Another  'o, '"  he  said,  and  interpolated  an  extra  letter 
in  the  name  of  the  town  which  he  had  done  so  much  to 
make  famous  the  world  over.  When  he  had  finished 
he  handed  back  the  book,  in  which  there  was  written: 


'^r'>x^ 


The  boy  put  the  book  into  his  pocket;  and  as  he  did 
so  Emerson's  eye  caught  the  slip  on  his  desk,  in  the 
boy's  handwriting,  and,  with  a  smile  of  absolute  enUght- 
enment,  he  turned  and  said: 

"You  wish  me  to  write  my  name?  With  pleasure. 
Have  you  a  book  with  you?" 

Overcome  with  astonishment,  Edward  mechanically 
handed  him  the  album  once  more  from  his  pocket. 
Quickly  turning  over  the  leaves,  Emerson  picked  up  the 
pen,  and  pushing  aside  the  slip,  wrote  without  a 
moment's  hesitation: 


EMERSON'S  MENTAL  MIST  59 


^^T-Tt-"- 


The  boy  was  almost  dazed  at  the  instantaneous  trans- 
formation in  the  man ! 

Miss  Alcott  now  grasped  this  moment  to  say:  "Well, 
we  must  be  going ! " 

"So  soon?"  said  Emerson,  rising  and  smiling.  Then 
turning  to  Miss  Alcott  he  said:  "It  was  very  kind  of 
you,  Louisa,  to  run  over  this  morning  and  bring  your 
young  friend." 

Then  turning  to  the  boy  he  said:  "Thank  you  so 
much  for  coming  to  see  me.  You  must  come  over 
again  while  you  are  with  the  Alcotts.  Good  morning ! 
Isn't  it  a  beautiful  day  out?"  he  said,  and  as  he  shook 
the  boy's  hand  there  was  a  warm  grasp  in  it,  the  fingers 
closed  around  those  of  the  boy,  and  as  Edward  looked 
into  those  deep  eyes  they  twinkled  and  smiled  back. 

The  going  was  all  so  different  from  the  coming. 
The  boy  was  grateful  that  his  last  impression  was  of  a 
moment  when  the  eye  kindled  and  the  hand  pulsated. 

The  two  walked  back  to  the  Alcott  home  in  an  almost 
unbroken  silence.     Once  Edward  ventured  to  remark : 

"You  can  have  no  idea,  Miss  Alcott,  how  grateful 
I  am  to  you." 

"Well,  my  boy,"  she  answered,  "Phillips  Brooks  may 
be  right:  that  it  is  something  to  have  seen  him  even 
so,  than  not  to  have  seen  him  at  all.  But  to  us  it  is  so 
sad^  so  very  sad.     The  twilight  is  gently  closing  in." 

And  so  it  proved — just  five  months  afterward. 

Eventful  day  after  eventful  day  followed  in  Edward's 


6o     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Boston  visit.  The  following  morning  he  spent  with 
Wendell  Phillips,  who  presented  him  with  letters  from 
WUliam  Lloyd  Garrison,  Lucretia  Mott,  and  other  fa- 
mous persons;  and  then,  writing  a  letter  of  introduction 
to  Charles  Francis  Adams,  whom  he  enjoined  to  give 
the  boy  autograph  letters  from  his  two  presidential 
forbears,  John  Adams  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  sent 
Edward  on  his  way  rejoicing.  Mr.  Adams  received  the 
boy  with  equal  graciousness  and  Uberality.  Wonder- 
ful letters  from  the  two  Adamses  were  his  when  he  left. 
And  then,  taking  the  train  for  New  York,  Edward 
Bok  went  home,  sitting  up  all  night  in  a  day-coach  for 
the  double  purpose  of  saving  the  cost  of  a  sleeping- 
berth  and  of  having  a  chance  to  classify  and  clarify  the 
events  of  the  most  wonderful  week  in  his  life ! 


CHAPTER  VII 
A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET 

The  father  of  Edward  Bok  passed  away  when  Edward 
was  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  it  was  found  that  the 
amount  of  the  small  insurance  left  behind  would  barely 
cover  the  funeral  expenses.  Hence  the  two  boys  faced 
the  problem  of  supporting  the  mother  on  their  meagre 
income.  They  determined  to  have  but  one  goal:  to 
put  their  mother  back  to  that  life  of  comfort  to  which 
she  had  been  brought  up  and  was  formerly  accustomed. 
But  that  was  not  possible  on  their  income.  It  was 
evident  that  other  employment  must  be  taken  on  dur- 
ing the  evenings. 

The  city  editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  had  given  Ed- 
ward the  assignment  of  covering  the  news  of  the  thea- 
tres; he  was  to  ascertain  ''coming  attractions"  and  any 
other  dramatic  items  of  news  interest.  One  Monday 
evening,  when  a  multiplicity  of  events  crowded  the 
reportorial  corps,  Edward  was  delegated  to  "cover" 
the  Grand  Opera  House,  where  Rose  Coghlan  was  to 
appear  in  a  play  that  had  already  been  seen  in  Brook- 
lyn, and  called,  therefore,  for  no  special  dramatic  criti- 
cism. Yet  The  Eagle  wanted  to  cover  it.  It  so  happened 
that  Edward  had  made  another  appointment  for  that 
evening  which  he  considered  more  important,  and  yet 
not  wishing  to  disappoint  his  editor  he  accepted  the 

assignment.     He  had  seen  Miss  Coghlan  in  the  play; 

61 


62      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

so  he  kept  his  other  engagement,  and  without  approach- 
ing the  theatre  he  wrote  a  notice  to  the  effect  that  Miss 
Coghlan  acted  her  part,  if  anything,  with  greater  power 
than  on  her  previous  Brooklyn  visit,  and  so  forth,  and 
handed  it  in  to  his  city  editor  the  next  morning  on  his 
way  to  business. 

Unfortunately,  however,  Miss  Coghlan  had  been  taken 
ill  just  before  the  raising  of  the  curtain,  and,  there 
being  no  understudy,  no  performance  had  been  given 
and  the  audience  dismissed.  All  this  was  duly  com- 
mented upon  by  the  New  York  morning  newspapers. 
Edward  read  this  bit  of  news  on  the  ferry-boat,  but 
his  notice  was  in  the  hands  of  the  city  editor. 

On  reaching  home  that  evening  he  found  a  summons 
from  The  Eagle,  and  the  next  morning  he  received  a  re- 
buke, and  was  informed  that  his  chances  with  the  paper 
were  over.  The  ready  acknowledgment  and  evident 
regret  of  the  crestfallen  boy,  however,  appealed  to  the 
editor,  and  before  the  end  of  the  week  he  called  the  boy 
to  him  and  promised  him  another  chance,  provided  the 
lesson  had  sunk  in.  It  had,  and  it  left  a  lasting  impres- 
sion. It  was  always  a  cause  of  profound  gratitude  with 
Edward  Bok  that  his  first  attempt  at  ''faking"  occurred 
so  early  in  his  journalistic  career  that  he  could  take  the 
experience  to  heart  and  profit  by  it. 

One  evening  when  Edward  was  attending  a  theatrical 
performance,  he  noticed  the  restlessness  of  the  women 
in  the  audience  between  the  acts.  In  those  days  it  was, 
even  more  than  at  present,  the  custom  for  the  men  to  go 
out  between  the  acts,  leaving  the  women  alone.  Edward 
looked  at  the  programme  in  his  hands.    It  was  a  large 


A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  6^ 

eleven-by-nine  sheet,  four  pages,  badly  pnnted,  with 
nothing  in  it  save  the  cast,  a  few  advertisements,  and 
an  announcement  of  some  coming  attraction.  The  boy 
mechanically  folded  the  programme,  turned  it  long  side 
up  and  wondered  whether  a  programme  of  this  smaller 
size,  easier  to  handle,  with  an  attractive  cover  and 
some  reading-matter,  would  not  be  profitable. 

When  he  reached  home  he  made  up  an  eight-page 
"dummy,"  pasted  an  attractive  picture  on  the  cover, 
indicated  the  material  to  go  inside,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing showed  it  to  the  manager  of  the  theatre.  The  pro- 
gramme as  issued  was  an  item  of  considerable  expense  to 
the  management;  Edward  offered  to  supply  his  new 
programme  without  cost,  provided  he  was  given  the  ex- 
clusive right,  and  the  manager  at  once  acceuted  the 
offer.  Edward  then  sought  a  friend,  Frederic  L.  Colver, 
who  had  a  larger  experience  in  publishing  and  advertis- 
ing, with  whom  he  formed  a  partnership.  Deciding  that 
immediately  upon  the  issuance  of  their  first  programme 
the  idea  was  likely  to  be  taken  up  by  the  other  theatres, 
Edward  proceeded  to  secure  the  exclusive  rights  to 
them  all.  The  two  young  publishers  solicited  their  ad- 
vertisements on  the  way  to  and  from  business  morn- 
ings and  evenings,  and  shortly  the  first  smaller-sized 
theatre  programme,  now  in  use  in  all  theatres,  appeared. 
The  venture  was  successful  from  the  start,  returning  a 
comfortable  profit  each  week.  Such  advertisements  as 
they  could  not  secure  for  cash  they  accepted  in  trade; 
and  this  latter  arrangement  assisted  materially  in  main- 
taining the  households  of  the  two  publishers. 

Edward's  partner  now  introduced  him  into  a  debating 


64     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

society  called  The  Philomathean  Society,  made  up  of 
young  men  connected  with  Plymouth  Church,  of  which 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  pastor.  The  debates  took  the 
form  of  a  miniature  congress,  each  member  representing 
a  State,  and  it  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  Edward 
drew,  by  lot,  the  representation  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Pennsylvania.  The  members  took  these  debates 
very  seriously;  no  subject  was  too  large  for  them  to 
discuss.  Edward  became  intensely  interested  in  the 
society's  doings,  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  was 
elected  president. 

The  society  derived  its  revenue  from  the  dues  of  its 
members  and  from  an  annual  concert  given  under  its 
auspices  in  Plymouth  Church.  When  the  time  for  the 
concert  under  Edward's  presidency  came  around,  he  de- 
cided that  the  occasion  should  be  unique  so  as  to  insure 
a  crowded  house.  He  induced  Mr.  Beecher  to  preside; 
he  got  General  Grant's  promise  to  come  and  speak;  he 
secured  the  gratuitous  services  of  Emma  C.  Thursby, 
Annie  Louise  Cary,  Clara  Louise  Kellogg,  and  Evelyn 
Lyon  Hegeman,  all  of  the  first  rank  of  concert-singers  of 
that  day,  with  the  result  that  the  church  could  not  ac- 
commodate the  crowd  which  naturally  was  attracted  by 
such  a  programme. 

It  now  entered  into  the  minds  of  the  two  young 
theatre-programme  pubHshers  to  extend  their  publish- 
ing interests  by  issuing  an  "organ"  for  their  society, 
and  the  first  issue  of  The  Philomathean  Review  duly  ap- 
peared with  Mr.  Colver  as  its  publisher  and  Edward 
Bok  as  editor.  Edward  had  now  an  opportunity  to  try 
his  wings  in  an  editorial  capacity.    The  periodical  was. 


A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  65 

of  course,  essentially  an  organ  of  the  society;  but  gradu- 
ally it  took  on  a  more  general  character,  so  that  its 
circulation  might  extend  over  a  larger  portion  of  Brook- 
lyn. With  this  extension  came  a  further  broadening  of 
its  contents,  which  now  began  to  take  on  a  literary 
character,  and  it  was  not  long  before  its  two  projectors 
realized  that  the  periodical  had  outgrown  its  name.  It 
was  decided — late  in  1884 — to  change  the  name  to 
The  Brooklyn  Magazine. 

There  was  a  periodical  called  The  Plymouth  Pulpit, 
which  presented  verbatim  reports  of  the  sermons  of  Mr. 
Beecher,  and  Edward  got  the  idea  of  absorbing  the 
Pulpit  in  the  Magazine.  But  that  required  more  capi- 
tal than  he  and  his  partner  could  command.  They  con- 
sulted Mr.  Beecher,  who,  attracted  by  the  enterprise  of 
the  two  boys,  sent  them  with  letters  of  introduction  to 
a  few  of  his  most  influential  parishioners,  with  the  result 
that  the  pair  soon  had  a  sufficient  financial  backing  by 
some  of  the  leading  men  of  Brooklyn,  like  A.  A.  Low, 
H.  B.  Claflin,  Rufus  T.  Bush,  Henry  W.  Slocum,  Seth 
Low,  Rossiter  W.  Raymond,  Horatio  C.  King,  and 
others. 

The  young  publishers  could  now  go  on.  Under- 
standing that  Mr.  Beecher's  sermons  might  give  a 
partial  and  denominational  tone  to  the  magazine,  Ed- 
ward arranged  to  publish  also  in  its  pages  verbatim  re- 
ports of  the  sermons  of  the  Reverend  T.  De  Witt  Tal- 
mage,  whose  reputation  was  then  at  its  zenith.  The 
young  editor  now  realized  that  he  had  a  rather  hea\y 
cargo  of  sermons  to  carry  each  month;  accordingly,  in 
order  that  his  magazine  might  not  appear  to  be  ex- 


66      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

clusively  religious,  he  determined  that  its  literary  con- 
tents should  be  of  a  high  order  and  equal  in  interest  to 
the  sermons.  But  this  called  for' additional  capital,  and 
the  capital  furnished  was  not  for  that  purpose. 

It  is  here  that  Edward's  autographic  acquaintances 
stood  him  in  good  stead.  He  went  in  turn  to  each  noted 
person  he  had  met,  explained  his  plight  and  stated  his 
ambitions,  with  the  result  that  very  soon  the  magazine 
and  the  pubhc  were  surprised  at  the  distinction  of  the 
contributors  to  The  Brooklyn  Magazine.  Each  number 
contained  a  noteworthy  list  of  them,  and  when  an  ar- 
ticle by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  then  Ruther- 
ford B.  Hayes,  opened  one  of  the  numbers,  the  public 
was  astonished,  since  up  to  that  time  the  unwritten  rule 
that  a  President's  writings  were  confined  to  official 
pronouncements  had  scarcely  been  broken.  WiUiam 
Dean  Howells,  General  Grant,  General  Sherman, 
Phillips  Brooks,  General  Sheridan,  Canon  Farrar,  Car- 
dinal Gibbons,  Marion  Harland,  Margaret  Sangster — 
the  most  prominent  men  and  women  of  the  day,  some 
of  whom  had  never  written  for  magazines — began  to 
appear  in  the  young  editor's  contents.  Editors  wondered 
how  the  publishers  could  afford  it,  whereas,  in  fact,  not 
a  single  name  represented  an  honorarium.  Each  con- 
tributor had  come  gratuitously  to  the  aid  of  the  editor. 

At  first,  the  circulation  of  the  magazine  permitted 
the  boys  to  wrap  the  copies  themselves;  and  then  they, 
with  two  other  boys,  would  carry  as  huge  bundles  as 
they  could  lift,  put  them  late  at  night  on  the  front 
platform  of  the  street-cars,  and  take  them  to  the  post- 
office.     Thus  the  boys  absolutely  knew  the  growth  of 


A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  67 

their  circulation  by  the  weight  of  their  bundles  and  the 
number  of  their  front-platform  trips  each  month. 
Soon  a  baker's  hand-cart  was  leased  for  an  evening,  and 
that  was  added  to  the  capacity  of  the  front  platforms. 
Then  one  eventful  month  it  was  seen  that  a  horse-truck 
would  have  to  be  employed.  Within  three  weeks,  a 
double  horse-truck  was  necessary,  and  three  trips  had 
to  be  made. 

By  this  time  Edward  Bok  had  become  so  intensely 
interested  in  the  editorial  problem,  and  his  partner  in 
the  periodical  publishing  part,  that  they  decided  to 
sell  out  their  theatre-programme  interests  and  devote 
themselves  to  the  magazine  and  its  rapidly  increasing 
circulation.  All  of  Edward's  editorial  work  had  nat- 
urally to  be  done  outside  of  his  business  hours,  in  other 
words,  in  the  evenings  and  on  Sundays;  and  the  young 
editor  found  himself  fully  occupied.  He  now  revived 
the  old  idea  of  selecting  a  subject  and  having  ten  or 
twenty  writers  express  their  views  on  it.  It  was  the  old 
symposium  idea,  but  it  had  not  been  presented  in 
American  journalism  for  a  number  of  years.  He  con- 
ceived the  topic  ''Should  America  Have  a  Westminster 
Abbey?"  and  induced  some  twenty  of  the  foremost 
men  and  women  of  the  day  to  discuss  it.  When  the 
discussion  was  presented  in  the  magazine,  the  form  being 
new  and  the  theme  novel,  Edward  was  careful  to  send 
advance  sheets  to  the  newspapers,  which  treated  it  at 
length  in  reviews  and  editorials,  with  marked  effect  upon 
the  circulation  of  the  magazine. 

All  this  time,  while  Edward  Bok  was  an  editor  in  his 
evenings  he  was,  during  the  day,  a  stenographer  and 


68     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

clerk  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company.  The 
two  occupations  were  hardly  compatible,  but  each  meant 
a  source  of  revenue  to  the  boy,  and  he  felt  he  must  hold 
on  to  both. 

After  his  father  passed  away,  the  position  of  the  boy's 
desk — next  to  the  empty  desk  of  his  father — was  a 
cause  of  constant  depression  to  him.  This  was  under- 
stood by  the  attorney  for  the  company,  Mr.  Clarence 
Cary,  who  sought  the  hea(?  of  Edward's  department, 
with  the  result  that  Edward  was  transferred  to  Mr. 
Cary's  department  as  the  attorney's  private  stenog- 
rapher. 

Edward  had  been  much  attracted  to  Mr.  Cary,  and 
the  attorney  believed  in  the  boy,  and  decided  to  show 
his  interest  by  pushing  him  along.  He  had  heard  of 
the  dual  role  which  Edward  was  playing;  he  bought  a 
copy  of  the  magazine,  and  was  interested.  Edward  now 
worked  with  new  zest  for  his  employer  and  friend;  while 
in  every  free  moment  he  read  law,  feeling  that,  as  almost 
all  his  forbears  had  been  lawyers,  he  might  perhaps  be 
destined  for  the  bar.  This  acquaintance  with  the  funda- 
mental basis  of  law,  cursory  as  it  was,  became  like  a 
gospel  to  Edward  Bok.  In  later  years,  he  was  taught 
its  value  by  repeated  experience  in  his  contact  with  cor- 
porate laws,  contracts,  property  leases,  and  other  mat- 
ters; and  he  determined  that,  whatever  the  direction  of 
activity  taken  by  his  sons,  each  should  spend  at  least 
a  year  in  the  study  of  law. 

The  control  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany had  now  passed  into  the  hands  of  Jay  Gould  and 
his  companions,  and  in  the  many  legal  matters  arising 


A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  69 

therefrom,  Edward  saw  much,  in  his  office,  of  "the  little 
wizard  of  Wall  Street."  One  day,  the  financier  had  to 
dictate  a  contract,  and,  coming  into  Mr.  Gary's  office, 
decided  to  dictate  it  then  and  there.  An  hour  after- 
ward Edward  delivered  the  copy  of  the  contract  to  Mr. 
Gould,  and  the  financier  was  so  struck  by  its  accuracy 
and  by  the  legibility  of  the  handwriting  that  after- 
ward he  almost  daily  "happened  in"  to  dictate  to  Mr. 
Gary's  stenographer.  Mr.  Gould's  private  stenog- 
rapher was  in  his  own  office  in  lower  Broadway;  but 
on  his  way  down- town  in  the  morning  Mr.  Gould  in- 
variably stopped  at  the  Western  Union  Building,  at  195 
Broadway,  and  the  habit  resulted  in  the  installation  of  a 
private  office  there.  He  borrowed  Edward  to  do  his 
stenography.  The  boy  found  himself  taking  not  only 
letters  from  Mr.  Gould's  dictation,  but,  what  interested 
him  particularly,  the  financier's  orders  to  buy  and  sell 
stock. 

Edward  watched  the  effects  on  the  stock-market  of 
these  little  notes  which  he  wrote  out  and  then  shot 
through  a  pneumatic  tube  to  Mr.  Gould's  brokers. 
Naturally,  the  results  enthralled  the  boy,  and  he  told 
Mr.  Gary  about  his  discoveries.  This,  in  turn,  inter- 
ested Mr.  Gary;  Mr.  Gould's  dictations  were  frequently 
given  in  Mr.  Gary's  own  office,  where,  as  his  desk  was 
not  ten  feet  from  that  of  his  stenographer,  the  attorney 
heard  them,  and  began  to  buy  and  sell  according  to 
the  magnate's  decisions. 

Edward  had  now  become  tremendously  interested  in 
the  stock  game  which  he  saw  constantly  played  by  the 
great  financier;    and  having  a  little  money  saved  up. 


70     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

he  concluded  that  he  would  follow  in  the  wake  of  Mr. 
Gould's  orders.  One  day,  he  naively  mentioned  his 
desire  to  Mr.  Gould,  when  the  financier  seemed  in  a 
particularly  favorable  frame  of  mind;  but  Edward  did 
not  succeed  in  drawing  out  the  advice  he  hoped  for.  "At 
least,"  reasoned  Edward,  "he  knew  of  my  intention; 
and  if  he  considered  it  a  violation  of  confidence  he  would 
have  said  as  much." 

Construing  the  financier's  silence  to  mean  at  least  not 
a  prohibition,  Edward  went  to  his  Sunday-school  teacher, 
who  was  a  member  of  a  Wall  Street  brokerage  firm,  laid 
the  facts  before  him,  and  asked  him  if  he  would  buy  for 
him  some  Western  Union  stock.  Edward  explained, 
however,  that  somehow  he  did  not  like  the  gambling 
idea  of  buying  "on  margin,"  and  preferred  to  purchase 
the  stock  outright.  He  was  shown  that  this  would  mean 
smaller  profits;  but  the  boy  had  in  mind  the  loss  of  his 
father's  fortune,  brought  about  largely  by  "stock 
margins,"  and  he  did  not  intend  to  follow  that  example. 
So,  prudently,  under  the  brokerage  of  his  Sunday-school 
teacher,  and  guided  by  the  tips  of  no  less  a  man  than  the 
controlling  factor  of  stock-market  finance,  Edward  Bok 
took  his  first  plunge  in  Wall  Street ! 

Of  course  the  boy's  buying  and  selling  tallied  pre- 
cisely with  the  rise  and  fall  of  Western  Union  stock. 
It  could  scarcely  have  been  otherwise.  Jay  Gould  had 
the  cards  all  in  his  hands;  and  as  he  bought  and  sold, 
so  Edward  bought  and  sold.  The  trouble  was,  the  com- 
bination did  not  end  there,  as  Edward  might  have 
foreseen  had  he  been  older  and  thus  wiser.  For  as 
Edward   bought   and   sold,  so   did   his   Sunday-school 


A   PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  71 

teacher,  and  all  his  customers  who  had  seen  the  won- 
derful acumen  of  their  broker  in  choosing  exactly  the 
right  time  to  buy  and  sell  Western  Union.  But  Ed- 
ward did  not  know  this. 

One  day  a  rumor  became  current  on  the  Street  that 
an  agreement  had  been  reached  by  the  Western  Union 
Company  and  its  bitter  rival,  the  American  Union 
Telegraph  Company,  whereby  the  former  was  to  ab- 
sorb the  latter.  Naturally,  the  report  affected  Western 
Union  stock.  But  Mr.  Gould  denied  it  in  toto;  said  the 
report  was  not  true,  no  such  consolidation  was  in  view 
or  had  even  been  considered.  Down  tumbled  the  stock, 
of  course. 

But  it  so  happened  that  Edward  knew  the  rumor 
was  true,  because  Mr.  Gould,  some  time  before,  had 
personally  given  him  the  contract  of  consolidation  to 
copy.  The  next  day  a  rumor  to  the  effect  that  the 
American  Union  was  to  absorb  the  Western  Union  ap- 
peared on  the  first  page  of  every  New  York  newspaper. 
Edward  knew  exactly  whence  this  rumor  emanated. 
He  had  heard  it  talked  over.  Again,  Western  Union 
stock  dropped  several  points.  Then  he  noticed  that 
Mr.  Gould  became  a  heavy  buyer.  So  became  Ed- 
ward— as  heavy  as  he  could.  Jay  Gould  pooh-poohed 
the  latest  rumor.     The  boy  awaited  developments. 

On  Sunday  afternoon,  Edward's  Sunday-school  teacher 
asked  the  boy  to  walk  home  with  him,  and  on  reaching 
the  house  took  him  into  the  study  and  asked  him  whether 
he  felt  justified  in  putting  all  his  savings  in  Western 
Union  just  at  that  time  when  the  price  was  tumbling 
so  fast  and  the  market  was  so  unsteady.     Edward  as- 


72      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

sured  his  teacher  that  he  was  right,  although  he  explained 
that  he  could  not  disclose  the  basis  of  his  assurance. 

Edward  thought  his  teacher  looked  worried,  and  after 
a  little  there  came  the  revelation  that  he,  seeing  that 
Edward  was  buying  to  his  limit,  had  Ukewise  done  so. 
But  the  broker  had  bought  on  margin,  and  had  his 
margin  wiped  out  by  the  decline  in  the  stock  caused 
by  the  rumors.  He  explained  to  Edward  that  he  could 
recoup  his  losses,  heavy  though  they  were — in  fact,  he 
explained  that  nearly  everything  he  possessed  was  in- 
volved— if  Edward's  basis  was  sure  and  the  stock  would 
recover. 

Edward  keenly  felt  the  responsibility  placed  upon 
him.  He  could  never  clearly  diagnose  his  feeHngs  when 
he  saw  his  teacher  in  this  new  hght.  The  broker's 
"customers"  had  been  hinted  at,  and  the  boy  of  eighteen 
wondered  how  far  his  responsibility  went,  and  how 
many  persons  were  involved.  But  the  deal  came  out 
all  right,  for  when,  three  days  afterward,  the  contract 
was  made  public,  Western  Union,  of  course,  skyrocketed. 
Jay  Gould  sold  out,  Edward  sold  out,  the  teacher- 
broker  sold  out,  and  all  the  customers  sold  out ! 

How  long  a  string  it  was  Edward  never  discovered, 
but  he  determined  there  and  then  to  end  his  Wall  Street 
experience;  his  original  amount  had  multiplied;  he  was 
content  to  let  well  enough  alone,  and  from  that  day  to 
this  Edward  Bok  has  kept  out  of  Wall  Street.  He  had 
seen  enough  of  its  manipulations;  and,  although  on 
"the  inside,"  he  decided  that  the  combination  of  his 
teacher  and  his  customers  was  a  responsibility  too  great 
for  him  to  carry. 


A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  73 

Furthermore,  Edward  decided  to  leave  the  Western 
Union.  The  longer  he  remained,  the  less  he  liked  its 
atmosphere.  And  the  closer  his  contact  with  Jay 
Gould  the  more  doubtful  he  became  of  the  wisdom  of 
such  an  association  and  perhaps  its  unconscious  influ- 
ence upon  his  own  life  in  its  formative  period. 

In  fact,  it  was  an  experience  with  Mr.  Gould  that 
definitely  fixed  Edward's  determination.  The  financier 
decided  one  Saturday  to  leave  on  a  railroad  inspection 
tour  on  the  following  Monday.  It  was  necessary  that 
a  special  meeting  of  one  of  his  railroad  interests  should 
be  held  before  his  departure,  and  he  fixed  the  meeting 
for  Sunday  at  eleven-thirty  at  his  residence  on  Fifth 
Avenue.  He  asked  Edward  to  be  there  to  take  the  notes 
of  the  meeting. 

The  meeting  was  protracted,  and  at  one  o'clock  Mr. 
Gould  suggested  an  adjournment  for  luncheon,  the  meet- 
ing to  reconvene  at  two.  Turning  to  Edward,  the 
financier  said:  "You  may  go  out  to  luncheon  and 
return  in  an  hour."  So,  on  Sunday  afternoon,  with  the 
Windsor  Hotel  on  the  opposite  corner  as  the  only  visible 
place  to  get  something  to  eat,  but  where  he  coiiJd  not 
afi"ord  to  go,  Edward,  with  just  fifteen  cents  in  his 
pocket,  was  turned  out  to  find  a  luncheon  place. 

He  bought  three  apples  for  five  cents — all  that  he 
could  afford  to  spend,  and  even  this  meant  that  he  must 
walk  home  from  the  ferry  to  his  house  in  Brooklyn — 
and  these  he  ate  as  he  walked  up  and  down  Fifth  Avenue 
until  his  hour  was  over.  When  the  meeting  ended  at 
three  o'clock,  Mr.  Gould  said  that,  as  he  was  leaving  for 
the  West  early  next  morning,  he  would  like  Edward 


74     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

to  write  out  his  notes,  and  have  them  at  his  house  by 
eight  o'clock.  There  were  over  forty  note-book  pages 
of  minutes.  The  remainder  of  Edward's  Sunday  after- 
noon and  evening  was  spent  in  transcribing  the  notes. 
By  rising  at  half  past  five  the  next  morning  he  reached 
Mr.  Gould's  house  at  a  quarter  to  eight,  handed  him 
the  minutes,  and  was  dismissed  without  so  much  as  a 
word  of  thanks  or  a  nod  of  approval  from  the  finan- 
cier. 

Edward  felt  that  this  exceeded  the  limit  of  fair  treat- 
ment by  employer  of  employee.  He  spoke  of  it  to  Mr. 
Gary,  and  asked  whether  he  would  object  if  he  tried  to 
get  away  from  such  influence  and  secure  another  posi- 
tion. His  employer  asked  the  boy  in  which  direction  he 
would  like  to  go,  and  Edward  unhesitatingly  suggested 
the  publishing  business.  He  talked  it  over  from  every 
angle  with  his  employer,  and  Mr.  Gary  not  only  agreed 
with  him  that  his  decision  was  wise,  but  promised  to 
find  him  a  position  such  as  he  had  in  mind. 

It  was  not  long  before  Mr.  Gary  made  good  his  word, 
and  told  Edward  that  his  friend  Henry  Holt,  the  pub- 
lisher, would  like  to  give  him  a  trial. 

The  day  before  he  was  to  leave  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Gompany  the  fact  of  his  resignation  became 
known  to  Mr.  Gould.  The  financier  told  the  boy  there 
was  no  reason  for  his  leaving,  and  that  he  would  per- 
sonally see  to  it  that  a  substantial  increase  was  made  in 
his  salary.  Edward  explained  that  the  salary,  while  of 
importance  to  him,  did  not  influence  him  so  much  as 
securing  a  position  in  a  business  in  which  he  felt  he 
would  be  happier. 


A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  75 

"And  what  business  is  that?"  asked  the  financier. 

"The  publishing  of  books,"  replied  the  boy. 

"You  are  making  a  great  mistake,"  answered  the  lit- 
tle man,  fixing  his  keen  gray  eyes  on  the  boy.  "Books 
are  a  luxury.  The  public  spends  its  largest  money  on 
necessities:  on  what  it  can't  do  without.  It  must  tele- 
graph; it  need  not  read.  It  can  read  in  libraries.  A 
promising  boy  such  as  you  are,  with  his  life  before  him, 
should  choose  the  right  sort  of  business,  not  the  wrong 
one." 

But,  as  facts  proved,  the  "little  wizard  of  Wall  Street" 
was  wrong  in  his  prediction;  Edward  Bok  was  not 
choosing  the  wrong  business. 

Years  afterward  when  Edward  was  cruising  up  the 
Hudson  with  a  yachting  party  one  Saturday  afternoon, 
the  sight  of  Jay  Gould's  mansion,  upon  approaching 
Irvington,  awakened  the  desire  of  the  women  on  board 
to  see  his  wonderful  orchid  collection.  Edward  ex- 
plained his  previous  association  with  the  financier  and 
offered  to  recall  himself  to  him,  if  the  party  wished  to 
take  the  chance  of  recognition.  A  note  was  written  to 
Mr.  Gould,  and  sent  ashore,  and  the  answer  came  back 
that  they  were  welcome  to  visit  the  orchid  houses.  Jay 
Gould,  in  person,  received  the  party,  and,  placing  it 
under  the  personal  conduct  of  his  gardener,  turned  to 
Edward  and,  indicating  a  bench,  said:  "Come  and  sit 
down  here  with  me." 

"Well,"  said  the  financier,  who  was  in  his  domestic 
mood,  quite  different  from  his  Wall  Street  aspect,  "I 
see  in  the  papers  that  you  seem  to  be  making  your  way 
in  the  publishing  business." 


76     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

Edward  expressed  surprise  that  the  Wall  Street  mag- 
nate had  followed  his  work. 

**I  have  because  I  always  felt  you  had  it  in  you  to 
make  a  successful  man.  But  not  in  that  business,"  he 
added  quickly.  "You  were  bom  for  the  Street.  You 
would  have  made  a  great  success  there,  and  that  is  what 
I  had  in  mind  for  you.  In  the  publishing  business  you 
will  go  just  so  far;  in  the  Street  you  could  have  gone  as 
far  as  you  liked.  There  is  room  there;  there  is  none  in 
the  publishing  business.  It's  not  too  late  now,  for  that 
matter,"  continued  the  "little  wizard,"  fastening  his 
steel  eyes  on  the  lad  beside  him ! 

And  Edward  Bok  has  often  speculated  whither  Jay 
Gould  might  have  led  him.  To  many  a  young  man,  a 
suggestion  from  such  a  source  would  have  seemed  the 
one  to  heed  and  follow.  But  Edward  Bok's  instinct 
never  failed  him.  He  felt  that  his  path  lay  far  apart 
from  that  of  Jay  Gould — and  the  farther  the  better ! 

In  1882  Edward,  with  a  feehng  of  distinct  relief,  left 
the  employ  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company 
and  associated  himself  with  the  publishing  business  in 
which  he  had  correctly  divined  that  his  future  lay. 

His  chief  regret  on  leaving  his  position  was  in  sever- 
ing the  dose  relations,  almost  as  of  father  and  son,  be- 
tween Mr.  Gary  and  himself.  When  Edward  was  left 
alone,  with  the  passing  away  of  his  father,  Clarence 
Gary  had  put  his  sheltering  arm  around  the  lonely  boy, 
and  with  the  tremendous  encouragement  of  the  phrase 
that  the  boy  never  forgot,  "I  think  you  have  it  in  you, 
Edward,  to  make  a  successful  man,"  he  took  him  under 
his  wing.     It  was  a   turning-point  in  Edward  Bok's 


A  PLUNGE  INTO  WALL  STREET  77 

life,  as  he  felt  at  the  time  and  as  he  saw  more  clearly 
afterward. 

He  remained  in  touch  with  his  friend,  however,  keep- 
ing him  advised  of  his  progress  in  everything  he  did,  not 
only  at  that  time,  but  all  through  his  later  years.  And 
it  was  given  to  Edward  to  feel  the  deep  satisfaction  of 
having  Mr.  Gary  say,  before  he  passed  away,  that  the 
boy  had  more  than  justified  the  confidence  reposed  in 
him.  Mr.  Gary  lived  to  see  him  well  on  his  way,  until, 
indeed,  Edward  had  had  the  proud  happiness  of  intro- 
ducing to  his  benefactor  the  son  who  bore  his  name, 
Gary  William  Bok. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

STARTING  A  NEWSPAPER  SYNDICATE 

Edward  felt  that  his  daytime  hours,  spent  in  a  pub- 
lisliing  atmosphere  as  stenographer  with  Henry  Holt  and 
Company,  were  more  in  line  with  his  editorial  duties 
during  the  evenings.  The  Brooklyn  Magazine  was  now 
earning  a  comfortable  income  for  its  two  young  pro- 
prietors, and  their  backers  were  entirely  satisfied  with 
the  way  it  was  being  conducted.  In  fact,  one  of  these 
backers,  Mr.  Rufus  T.  Bush,  associated  with  the 
Standard  Oil  Company,  who  became  especially  inter- 
ested, thought  he  saw  in  the  success  of  the  two  boys  a 
possible  opening  for  one  of  his  sons,  who  was  shortly 
to  be  graduated  from  college.  He  talked  to  the  pub- 
lisher and  editor  about  the  idea,  but  the  boys  showed  by 
their  books  that  while  there  was  a  reasonable  income  for 
them,  not  wholly  dependent  on  the  magazine,  there 
was  no  room  for  a  third. 

Mr.  Bush  now  suggested  that  he  buy  the  magazine 

for  his  son,  alter  its  name,  enlarge  its  scope,  and  make  of 

it  a  national  periodical.    Arrangements  were  concluded, 

those  who   had   financially   backed   the   venture   were 

fully  paid,  and  the  two  boys  received  a  satisfactory 

amount  for  their  work  in  building  up  the  magazine. 

Mr.  Bush  asked  Edward  to  suggest  a  name  for  the  new 

periodical,  and  in  the  following  month  of  May,  1887, 

The  Brooklyn  Magazine  became  T'he  American  Maga- 

78 


STARTING  A  NEWSPAPER  SYNDICATE  79 

zine,  with  its  publication  office  in  New  York.  But, 
though  a  great  deal  of  money  was  spent  on  the  new 
magazine,  it  did  not  succeed.  Mr.  Bush  sold  his  in- 
terest in  the  periodical,  which,  once  more  changing  its 
name,  became  The  Cosmopolitan  Magazine.  Since  then 
it  has  passed  through  the  hands  of  several  owners,  but 
the  name  has  remained  the  same.  Before  Mr.  Bush  sold 
The  American  Magazine  he  had  urged  Edward  to  come 
back  to  it  as  its  editor,  with  promise  of  financial  sup- 
port; but  the  young  man  felt  instinctively  that  his  return 
would  not  be  wise.  The  magazine  had  been  The  Cos- 
mopolitan only  a  short  time  when  the  new  owners,  Mr. 
Paul  J.  Slicht  and  Mr.  E.  D.  Walker,  also  solicited  the 
previous  editor  to  accept  reappointment.  But  Edward, 
feeling  that  his  baby  had  been  rechristened  too  often 
for  him  to  father  it  again,  declined  the  proposition.  He 
had  not  heard  the  last  of  it,  however,  for,  by  a  curious 
coincidence,  its  subsequent  owner,  entirely  ignorant  of 
Edward's  previous  association  with  the  magazine,  in- 
vited him  to  connect  himself  with  it.  Thus  three  times 
could  Edward  Bok  have  returned  to  the  magazine  for 
whose  creation  he  was  responsible. 

Edward  was  now  without  editorial  cares;  but  he  had 
already,  even  before  disposing  of  the  magazine,  embarked 
on  another  line  of  endeavor.  In  sending  to  a  number  of 
newspapers  the  advance  sheets  of  a  particularly  strik- 
ing "feature"  in  one  of  his  numbers  of  The  Brooklyn 
Magazine,  it  occurred  to  him  that  he  was  furnishing  a 
good  deal  of  valuable  material  to  these  papers  without 
cost.  It  is  true  his  magazine  was  receiving  the  adver- 
tising value  of  editorial  comment;  but  the  boy  wondered 


8o     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

whether  the  newspapers  would  not  be  willing  to  pay  for 
the  privilege  of  simultaneous  publication.  An  inquiry 
or  two  proved  that  they  would.  Thus  Edward  stumbled 
upon  the  "syndicate"  plan  of  furnishing  the  same  ar- 
ticle to  a  group  of  newspapers,  one  in  each  city,  for 
simultaneous  publication.  He  looked  over  the  ground, 
and  found  that  while  his  idea  was  not  a  new  one,  since 
two  "syndicate"  agencies  already  existed,  the  field  was 
by  no  means  fully  covered,  and  that  the  success  of  a 
third  agency  would  depend  entirely  upon  its  ability  to 
furnish  the  newspapers  with  material  equally  good  or 
better  than  they  received  from  the  others.  After  fol- 
lowing the  material  furnished  by  these  agencies  for  two 
or  three  weeks,  Edward  decided  that  there  was  plenty 
of  room  for  his  new  ideas. 

He  discussed  the  matter  with  his  former  magazine 
partner,  Colver,  and  suggested  that  if  they  could  induce 
Mr.  Beecher  to  write  a  weekly  comment  on  current 
events  for  the  newspapers  it  would  make  an  auspicious 
beginning.  They  decided  to  talk  it  over  with  the  fa- 
mous preacher.  For  to  be  a  "Plymouth  boy" — that  is, 
to  go  to  the  Plymouth  Church  Sunday-school  and  to 
attend  church  there — was  to  know  personally  and  be- 
come devoted  to  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  And  the  two 
were  synonymous.  There  was  no  distance  between  Mr. 
Beecher  and  his  "Plymouth  boys."  Each  imderstood 
the  other.    The  tie  was  that  of  absolute  comradeship. 

"I  don't  believe  in  it,  boys,"  said  Mr.  Beecher  when 
Edward  and  his  friend  broached  the  syndicate  letter 
to  him.  "No  one  yet  ever  made  a  cent  out  of  my  sup- 
posed literary  work." 


STARTING  A  NEWSPAPER  SYNDICATE  8i 

All  the  more  reason,  was  the  argument,  why  some  one 
should. 

Mr.  Beecher  smiled  !  How  well  he  knew  the  youthful 
enthusiasm  that  rushes  in,  etc. 

"Well,  all  right,  boys!  I  like  your  pluck,"  he  finally 
said.    "I'U  help  you  if  I  can." 

The  boys  agreed  to  pay  Mr.  Beecher  a  weekly  sum  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars — which  he  knew  was  con- 
siderable for  them. 

When  the  first  article  had  been  written  they  took  him 
their  first  check.  He  looked  at  it  quizzically,  and  then 
at  the  boys.  Then  he  said  simply:  "Thank  you."  He 
took  a  pin  and  pinned  the  check  to  his  desk.  There  it 
remained,  much  to  the  curiosity  of  the  two  boys. 

The  following  week  he  had  written  the  second  article 
and  the  boys  gave  him  another  check.  He  pinned  that 
up  over  the  other.  "  I  like  to  look  at  them,"  was  his  only 
explanation,  as  he  saw  Edward's  inquiring  glance  one 
morning. 

The  third  check  was  treated  the  same  way.  When  the 
boys  handed  him  the  fourth,  one  morning,  as  he  was 
pinning  it  up  over  the  others,  he  asked:  "When  do  you 
get  your  money  from  the  newspapers?" 

He  was  told  that  the  bills  were  going  out  that  morning 
for  the  four  letters  constituting  a  month's  service. 

"I  see,"  he  remarked. 

A  fortnight  passed,  then  one  day  Mr.  Beecher  asked: 
"Well,  how  are  the  checks  coming  in?" 

"Very  well,"  he  was  assured. 

"Suppose  you  let  me  see  how  much  you've  got  in,"  he 
suggested,  and  the  boys  brought  the  accounts  to  him. 


82      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

After  looking  at  them  he  said:  '* That's  very  interest- 
ing.    How  much  have  you  in  the  bank?" 

He  was  told  the  balance,  less  the  checks  given  to  him. 
"But  I  haven't  turned  them  in  yet,"  he  explained. 
"Anyhow,  you  have  enough  in  bank  to  meet  the  checks 
you  have  given  me,  and  a  profit  besides,  haven't  you?" 

He  was  assured  they  had. 

Then,  taking  his  bank-book  from  a  drawer,  he  un- 
pinned the  six  checks  on  his  desk,  indorsed  each  thus: 


wrote  a  deposit-slip,  and,  handing  the  book  to  Edward, 
said: 

"Just  hand  that  in  at  the  bank  as  you  go  by,  will 
you?" 

Edward  was  very  young  then,  and  Mr.  Beecher's 
methods  of  financiering  seemed  to  him  quite  in  fine  with 
current  notions  of  the  Plymouth  pastor's  lack  of  busi- 
ness knowledge.  But  as  the  years  rolled  on  the  incident 
appeared  in  a  new  light — a  striking  example  of  the  great 
preacher's  wonderful  considerateness. 

Edward  had  offered  to  help  Mr.  Beecher  with  his  cor- 
respondence; at  the  close  of  one  afternoon,  while  he  was 
with  the  Plymouth  pastor  at  work,  an  organ-grinder 
and  a  little  girl  came  under  the  study  window.  A  cold, 
driving   rain   was  pelting  down.     In   a   moment   Mr. 


STARTING  A  NEWSPAPER  SYNDICATE  83 

Beecher  noticed  the  girl's  bare  toes  sticking  out  of  her 
worn  shoes. 

He  got  up,  went  into  the  hall,  and  called  for  one  of 
his  granddaughters. 

"Got  any  good,  strong  rain  boots?"  he  asked  when 
she  appeared. 

"Why,  yes,  grandfather.    Why?"  was  the  answer. 

"More  than  one  pair?"  Mr.  Beecher  asked. 

"Yes,  two  or  three,  I  think." 

"Bring  me  your  strongest  pair,  will  you,  dear?"  he 
asked.  And  as  the  giri  looked  at  him  with  surprise  he 
said:  "Just  one  of  my  notions." 

"Now,  just  bring  that  child  into  the  house  and  put 
them  on  her  feet  for  me,  will  you?"  he  said  when  the 
shoes  came.    "I'll  be  able  to  work  so  much  better." 

One  rainy  day,  as  Edward  was  coming  up  from  Ful- 
ton Ferry  with  Mr.  Beecher,  they  met  an  old  woman 
soaked  with  the  rain.  "Here,  you  take  this,  my  good 
woman,"  said  the  clergyman,  putting  his  umbrella  over 
her  head  and  thrusting  the  handle  into  the  astonished 
woman's  hand.  "Let's  get  into  this,"  he  said  to  Ed- 
ward simply,  as  he  hailed  a  passing  car. 

"There  is  a  good  deal  of  fraud  about  beggars,"  he  re- 
marked as  he  waved  a  sot  away  from  him  one  day; 
"but  that  doesn't  apply  to  women  and  children,"  he 
added;  and  he  never  passed  such  mendicants  without 
stopping.  All  the  stories  about  their  being  tools  in  the 
hands  of  accomplices  failed  to  convince  him.  "They're 
women  and  children,"  he  would  say,  and  that  settled  it 
for  him. 

"What's  the  matter,  son?    Stuck?"  he  said  once  to 


84     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

a  newsboy  who  was  crying  with  a  heavy  bundle  of 
papers  under  his  arm. 

"Come  along  with  me,  then,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  tak- 
ing the  boy's  hand  and  leading  him  into  the  newspaper 
ofi5ce  a  few  doors  up  the  street. 

"This  boy  is  stuck,"  he  simply  said  to  the  man  be- 
hind the  counter.  "Guess  The  Eagle  can  stand  it  better 
than  this  boy;  don't  you  think  so?" 

To  the  grown  man  Mr.  Beecher  rarely  gave  charity. 
He  beheved  in  a  return  for  his  alms. 

"Why  don't  you  go  to  work?"  he  asked  of  a  man  who 
approached  him  one  day  in  the  street. 

"Can't  find  any,"  said  the  man. 

"Looked  hard  for  it?"  was  the  next  question. 

"I  have,"  and  the  man  looked  Mr.  Beecher  in  the 
eye. 

"Want  some?"  asked  Mr.  Beecher. 

"I  do,"  said  the  man. 

"Come  with  me,"  said  the  preacher.  And  then  to 
Edward,  as  they  walked  along  with  the  man  following 
behind,  he  added:  "That  man  is  honest." 

"Let  this  man  sweep  out  the  church,"  he  said  to  the 
sexton  when  they  had  reached  Plymouth  Church. 

"But,  Mr.  Beecher,"  replied  the  sexton  with  wounded 
pride,  "it  doesn't  need  it." 

"Don't  tell  him  so,  though,"  said  Mr.  Beecher  with  a 
merr>'  twinkle  of  the  eye;  and  the  sexton  understood. 

Mr.  Beecher  was  constantly  thoughtful  of  a  struggling 
young  man's  welfare,  even  at  the  expense  of  his  own 
material  comfort.  Anxious  to  save  him  from  the  labor 
of  writing  out  the  newspaper  articles,  Edward,  himself 


STARTING  A  NEWSPAPER  SYNDICATE  85 

employed  during  the  daylight  hours  which  Mr.  Beecher 
preferred  for  his  original  work,  suggested  a  stenographer. 
The  idea  appealed  to  Mr.  Beecher,  for  he  was  very  busy 
just  then.  He  hesitated,  but  as  Edward  persisted,  he 
said:  "All  right;  let  him  come  to-morrow." 

The  next  day  he  said:  "I  asked  that  stenographer 
friend  of  yours  not  to  come  again.  No  use  of  my  trying 
to  dictate.  I  am  too  old  to  learn  new  tricks.  Much 
easier  for  me  to  write  myself." 

Shortly  after  that,  however,  Mr.  Beecher  dictated  to 
Edward  some  material  for  a  book  he  was  writing.  Ed- 
ward naturally  wondered  at  this,  and  asked  the  stenog- 
rapher what  had  happened. 

"Nothing,"  he  said.  "Only  Mr.  Beecher  asked  me 
how  much  it  would  cost  you  to  have  me  come  to  him 
each  week.    I  told  him,  and  then  he  sent  me  away." 

That  was  Henry  Ward  Beecher! 

Edward  Bok  was  in  the  formative  period  between 
boyhood  and  young  manhood  when  impressions  meant 
lessons,  and  associations  meant  ideals.  Mr.  Beecher 
never  disappointed.  The  closer  one  got  to  him,  the 
greater  he  became — in  striking  contrast  to  most  public 
men,  as  Edward  had  already  learned. 

Then,  his  interests  and  sympathies  were  enormously 
wide.  He  took  in  so  much !  One  day  Edward  was 
walking  past  Fulton  Market,  in  New  York  City,  with 
Mr.  Beecher. 

"Never  skirt  a  market,"  the  latter  said;  "always  go 
through  it.  It's  the  next  best  thing,  in  the  winter,  to 
going  South." 


86     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

Of  course  all  the  marketmen  knew  him,  and  they 
knew,  too,  his  love  for  green  things. 

"What  do  you  think  of  these  apples,  Mr.  Beecher?" 
one  marketman  would  stop  to  ask. 

Mr.  Beecher  would  answer  heartily:  "Fine!  Don't 
see  how  you  grow  them.  All  that  my  trees  bear  is  a 
crop  of  scale.  Still,  the  blossoms  are  beautiful  in  the 
spring,  and  I  like  an  apple-leaf.  Ever  examine  one?" 
The  marketman  never  had.  "Well,  now,  do,  the  next 
time  you  come  across  an  apple-tree  in  the  spring." 

And  thus  he  would  spread  abroad  an  interest  in  the 
beauties  of  nature  which  were  commonly  passed  over. 

"Wonderful  man,  Beecher  is,"  said  a  market  dealer 
in  green  goods  once.  "I  had  handled  thousands  of 
bunches  of  celery  in  my  life  and  never  noticed  how  beau- 
tiful its  top  leaves  were  until  he  picked  up  a  bunch  once 
and  told  me  all  about  it. '  Now  I  haven't  the  heart  to 
cut  the  leaves  off  when  a  customer  asks  me." 

His  idea  of  his  own  vegetable-gardening  at  Boscobel, 
his  Peekskill  home,  was  very  amusing.  One  day  Edward 
was  having  a  hurried  dinner,  preparatory  to  catching 
the  New  York  train.  Mr.  Beecher  sat  beside  the  boy, 
telling  him  of  some  things  he  wished  done  in  Brooklyn. 

"No,  I  thank  you,"  said  Edward,  as  the  maid  offered 
him  some  potatoes. 

"Look  here,  young  man,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  "don't 
pass  those  potatoes  so  lightly.  They're  of  my  own 
raising — and  I  reckon  they  cost  me  about  a  dollar  a 
piece,"  he  added  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye. 

He  was  an  education  in  so  many  ways !  One  instance 
taught  Edward  the  great  danger  of  passionate  speech 


STARTING  A  NEWSPAPER  SYNDICATE  87 

that  might  unconsciously  wound,  and  the  manliness  of 
instant  recognition  of  the  error.  Swayed  by  an  oc- 
casion, or  by  the  responsiveness  of  an  audience.  Mr. 
Beecher  would  sometimes  say  something  which  was  not 
meant  as  it  sounded.  One  evening,  at  a  great  political 
meeting  at  Cooper  Union,  Mr.  Beecher  was  at  his 
brightest  and  wittiest.  In  the  course  of  his  remarks  he 
had  occasion  to  refer  to  ex-President  Hayes;  some  one 
in  the  audience  called  out:  "He  was  a  softy!" 

"No,"  was  Mr.  Beecher's  quick  response.  "The 
country  needed  a  poultice  at  that  time,  and  got  it." 

"He's  dead  now,  anyhow,"  responded  the  voice. 

"Not  dead,  my  friend:  he  only  sleepeth." 

It  convulsed  the  audience,  of  course,  and  the  reporters 
took  it  down  in  their  books. 

After  the  meeting  Edward  drove  home  with  Mr. 
Beecher.  After  a  while  he  asked:  "Well,  how  do  you 
think  it  went?" 

Edward  replied  he  thought  it  went  very  well,  except 
that  he  did  not  like  the  reference  to  ex-President  Hayes. 

' '  What  reference  ?     What  did  I  say  ?  " 

Edward  repeated  it. 

"Did  I  say  that?"  he  asked.  Edward  looked  at 
him.  Mr.  Beecher's  face  was  tense.  After  a  few  mo- 
ments he  said:  "That's  generally  the  way  with  extem- 
poraneous remarks:  they  are  always  dangerous.  The 
best  impromptu  speeches  and  remarks  are  the  carefully 
prepared  kind,"  he  added. 

Edward  told  him  he  regretted  the  reference  because 
he  knew  that  General  Hayes  would  read  it  in  the 
New  York  papers,  and  he  would  be  nonplussed  to  un- 


88      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

derstand  it,  considering  the  cordial  relations  which 
existed  between  the  two  men.  Mr.  Beecher  knew  of 
Edward's  relations  with  the  ex-President,  and  they  had 
often  talked  of  him  together. 

Nothing  more  was  said  of  the  incident.  When  the 
Beecher  home  was  reached  Mr.  Beecher  said:  "Just 
come  in  a  minute."  He  went  straight  to  his  desk,  and 
wrote  and  wrote.  It  seemed  as  if  he  would  never  stop. 
At  last  he  handed  Edward  an  eight-page  letter,  closely 
written,  addressed  to  General  Hayes. 

"Read  that,  and  mail  it,  please,  on  your  way  home. 
Then  it'll  get  there  just  as  quickly  as  the  New  York 
papers  will." 

It  was  a  superbly  fine  letter, — one  of  those  letters 
which  only  Henry  Ward  Beecher  could  write  in  his  ten- 
derest  moods.  And  the  reply  which  came  from  Fremont, 
Ohio,  was  no  less  fine ! 


CHAPTER   IX 
ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD   BEECHER 

As  a  letter- writer,  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  a  con- 
stant wonder.  He  never  wrote  a  commonplace  letter. 
There  was  always  himself  in  it — in  whatever  mood  it 
found  him. 

It  was  not  customary  for.  him  to  see  all  his  mail.  As  a 
rule  Mrs.  Beecher  opened  it,  and  attended  to  most  of 
it.  One  evening  Edward  was  helping  Mrs.  Beecher 
handle  an  unusually  large  number  of  letters.  He  was 
reading  one  when  Mr.  Beecher  happened  to  come  in 
and  read  what  otherwise  he  would  not  have  seen : 

Reverend  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  journeyed  over  from  my  New  York  hotel  yesterday  morn- 
ing to  hear  you  preach,  expecting,  of  course,  to  hear  an  ex- 
position of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  Instead,  I  heard  a 
political  harangue,  with  no  reason  or  cohesion  in  it.     You 

made  an  ass  of  yourself.  ,.       ^    , 

•^  Very  truly  yours, 


"That's  to  the  point,"  commented  Mr.  Beecher  with 
a  smile;  and  then  seating  himself  at  his  desk,  he  turned 
the  sheet  over  and  wrote: 

My  Dear  Ser: — 

I  am  sorry  you  should  have  taken  so  long  a  journey  to  hear 
Christ  preached,  and  then  heard  what  you  are  polite  enough 

89 


90     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

to  call  a  "political  harangue."     I  am  sorry,  too,  that  you 

think  I  made  an  ass  of  myself.    In  this  connection  I  have  but 

one  consolation:    that  you  didn't  make  an  ass  of  yourself. 

The  Lord  did  that.  xt  ttt        t. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


When  the  Reverend  T.  De  Witt  Talmage  began  to 
come  into  public  notice  in  Brooklyn,  some  of  Mr. 
Beecher's  overzealous  followers  unwisely  gave  the  im- 
pression that  the  Plymouth  preacher  resented  sharing 
with  another  the  pulpit  fame  which  he  alone  had  so 
long  unquestioningly  held.  Nothing,  of  course,  was 
further  from  Mr.  Beecher's  mind.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  two  men  were  exceedingly  good  friends.  Mr. 
Beecher  once  met  Doctor  Talmage  in  a  crowded  business 
thoroughfare,  where  they  got  so  deeply  interested  in 
each  other's  talk  that  they  sat  down  in  some  chairs 
standing  in  front  of  a  furniture  store.  A  gathering 
throng  of  intensely  amused  people  soon  brought  the  two 
men  to  the  realization  that  they  had  better  move. 
Then  Mr.  Beecher  happened  to  see  that  back  of  their 
heads  had  been,  respectively,  two  signs:  one  reading, 
"This  style  $3.45,"  the  other,  ''This  style  $4.25." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  as  he  and  Doctor  Tal- 
mage walked  away  laughing,  "I  was  ticketed  higher 
than  you,  Talmage,  anyhow." 

"You're  worth  more,"  rejoined  Doctor  Talmage. 

On  another  occasion,  as  the  two  men  met  they  be- 
gan to  bandy  each  other. 

"Now,  Talmage,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  his  eyes  twin- 
kling, "let's  have  it  out.  My  people  say  that  Plymouth 
holds  more  people  than  the  Tabernacle,  and  your  folks 


ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER    91 

stand  up  for  the  Tabernacle.  Now  which  is  it  ?  What 
is  your  estimate?" 

"Well,  I  should  say  that  the  Tabernacle  holds  about 
fifteen  thousand  people,"  said  Doctor  Talmage  with  a 
smile. 

"Good,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  at  once  catching  the 
spirit.  "And  I  say  that  Plymouth  accommodates, 
comfortably,  twenty  thousand  people.  Now,  let's  tell 
our  respective  trustees  that  it's  settled,  once  for  all." 

Mr.  Beecher  could  never  be  induced  to  take  note  of 
what  others  said  of  him.  His  friends,  with  more  heart 
than  head,  often  tried  to  persuade  him  to  answer  some 
attack,  but  he  invariably  waved  them  off.  He  always 
saw  the  ridiculous  side  of  those  attacks;  never  their 
serious  import. 

At  one  time  a  fellow  Brooklyn  minister,  a  staunch 
Prohibitionist,  publicly  reproved  Mr.  Beecher  for  be- 
ing inconsistent  in  his  temperance  views,  to  the  extent 
that  he  preached  temperance  but  drank  beer  at  his  own 
dinner-table.  This  attack  angered  the  friends  of  Mr. 
Beecher,  who  tried  to  persuade  him  to  answer  the 
charge.     But  the  Plymouth  pastor  refused.     "Friend 

is  a  good  fellow,"  was  the  only  comment  they  could 

elicit. 

"But  he  ought  to  be  broadened,"  persisted  the 
friends. 

"Well  now,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  "that  isn't  always 
possible.  For  instance,"  he  continued,  as  that  inimita- 
ble merry  twinkle  came  into  his  eyes,  "sometime  ago 

Friend  criticised  me  for  something  I  had  said. 

I  thought  he  ought  not  to  have  done  so,  and  the  next 


92      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

time  we  met  I  told  him  so.  He  persisted,  and  I  felt 
the  only  way  to  treat  him  was  as  I  would  an  unruly 
child.  So  I  just  took  hold  of  him,  laid  him  face  down 
over  my  knee,  and  proceeded  to  impress  him  as  our 
fathers  used  to  do  of  old.  And,  do  you  know,  I  found 
that  the  Lord  had  not  made  a  place  on  him  for  me  to 
lay  my  hand  upon." 

And  in  the  laughter  which  met  this  sally  Mr.  Beecher 
ended  with  "You  see,  it  isn't  always  possible  to  broaden 
a  man." 

Mr.  Beecher  was  rarely  angry.  Once,  however,  he 
came  near  it;  yet  he  was  more  displeased  than  angry. 
Some  of  his  family  and  Edward  had  gone  to  a  notable 
pubhc  affair  at  the  Brooklyn  Academy  of  Music,  where 
a  box  had  been  placed  at  Mr.  Beecher's  disposal.  One 
member  of  the  family  was  a  very  beautiful  girl  who  had 
brought  a  girl-friend.  Both  were  attired  in  full  evening 
decollete  costume.  Mr.  Beecher  came  in  late  from  an- 
other engagement.  A  chair  had  been  kept  vacant  for 
him  in  the  immediate  front  of  the  box,  since  his  presence 
had  been  widely  advertised,  and  the  audience  was  ex- 
pecting to  see  him.  When  he  came  in,  he  doffed  his 
coat  and  was  about  to  go  to  the  chair  reserved  for  him, 
when  he  stopped,  stepped  back,  and  sat  down  in  a  chair 
in  the  rear  of  the  box.  It  was  evident  from  his  face  that 
something  had  displeased  him.  Mrs.  Beecher  leaned 
over  and  asked  him,  but  he  offered  no  explanation. 
Nothing  was  said. 

Edward  went  back  to  the  house  with  Mr.  Beecher; 
after  talking  awhile  in  the  study,  the  preacher,  wishing 
to  show  him  something,  was  going  up-stairs  with  his 


ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD   BEECHER    93 

guest  and  had  nearly  reached  the  second  landing  when 
there  was  the  sound  of  a  rush,  the  gas  was  quickly 
turned  low,  and  two  white  figures  sped  into  one  of  the 
rooms. 

"My  dears,"  called  Mr.  Beecher. 

"Yes,  Mr.  Beecher,"  came  a  voice  from  behind  the 
door  of  the  room  in  question. 

"Come  here  one  minute,"  said  Mr.  Beecher. 

"But  we  cannot,"  said  the  voice.  "We  are  ready  for 
bed.     Wait  until " 

"No;  come  as  you  are,"  returned  Mr.  Beecher. 

"Let  me  go  down-stairs,"  Edward  interrupted. 

"No;  you  stay  right  here,"  said  Mr.  Beecher. 

"Why,  Mr.  Beecher!  How  can  we?  Isn't  Edward 
with  you?" 

"You  are  keeping  me  waiting  for  you,"  was  the  quiet 
and  firm  answer. 

There  was  a  moment's  hesitation.  Then  the  door 
opened  and  the  figures  of  the  two  girls  appeared. 

"Now,  turn  up  the  gas,  please,  as  it  was,"  said  Mr. 
Beecher. 

"But,  Mr.  Beecher " 

"You  heard  me?" 

Up  went  the  light,  and  the  two  beautiful  girls  of  the 
box  stood  in  their  night-dresses. 

"Now,  why  did  you  run  away?"  asked  Mr.  Beecher. 

"Why,  Mr.  Beecher !  How  can  you  ask  such  a  ques- 
tion?" pouted  one  of  the  girls,  looking  at  her  dress  and 
then  at  Edward. 

"Exactly,"  said  Mr.  Beecher.  "Your  modesty  leads 
you  to  run  away  from  this  young  man  because  he  might 


94     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

possibly  see  you  under  a  single  light  in  dresses  that  cover 
your  entire  bodies,  while  that  same  modesty  did  not 
prevent  you  all  this  evening  from  sitting  beside  him, 
under  a  myriad  of  lights,  in  dresses  that  exposed  nearly 
half  of  your  bodies.  That's  what  I  call  a  distinction 
with  a  difference — with  the  difference  to  the  credit 
neither  of  your  intelligence  nor  of  your  modesty.  There 
is  some  modesty  in  the  dresses  you  have  on:  there  was 
precious  little  in  what  you  girls  wore  this  evening. 
Good  night." 

''You  do  not  believe,  Mr.  Beecher,"  Edward  asked 
later,  "in  decollete  dressing  for  girls?" 

"No,  and  even  less  for  women.  A  girl  has  some  ex- 
cuse of  youth  on  her  side;  a  woman  none  at  all." 

A  few  moments  later  he  added : 

"A  proper  dress  for  any  girl  or  woman  is  one  that 
reveals  the  lady,  but  not  her  person." 

Edward  asked  Mrs.  Beecher  one  day  whether  Mr. 
Beecher  had  ever  expressed  an  opinion  of  his  sister's 
famous  book,  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  and  she  told  this  in- 
teresting story  of  how  the  famous  preacher  read  the 
story : 

"When  the  story  was  first  published  in  The  National 
Era,  in  chapters,  all  our  family,  excepting  Mr.  Beecher, 
looked  impatiently  for  its  appearance  each  week.  But, 
try  as  we  might,  we  could  not  persuade  Mr.  Beecher  to 
read  it,  or  let  us  tell  him  anything  about  it. 

"'It's  folly  for  you  to  be  kept  in  constant  excitement 
week  after  week,'  he  would  say.  'I  shall  wait  till  the 
work  is  completed,  and  take  it  all  at  one  dose.' 

"After  the  serial  ended,  the  book  came  to  Mr.  Beecher 


ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD   BEECHER    95 

on  the  morning  of  a  day  when  he  had  a  meeting  on  hand 
for  the  afternoon  and  a  speech  to  make  in  the  evening. 
The  book  was  quietly  laid  one  side,  for  he  always  scru- 
pulously avoided  everything  that  could  interfere  with 
work  he  was  expected  to  do.  But  the  next  day  was  a 
free  day.  Mr.  Beecher  rose  even  earlier  than  usual,  and 
as  soon  as  he  was  dressed  he  began  to  read  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin.  When  breakfast  was  ready  he  took  his  book 
with  him  to  the  table,  where  reading  and  eating  went 
on  together;  but  he  spoke  never  a  word.  After  morning 
prayers,  he  threw  himself  on  the  sofa,  forgot  everything 
but  his  book,  and  read  uninterruptedly  till  dinner-time. 
Though  evidently  intensely  interested,  for  a  long  time 
he  controlled  any  marked  indication  of  it.  Before 
noon  I  knew  the  storm  was  gathering  that  would  con- 
quer his  self-control,  as  it  had  done  with  us  all.  He 
frequently  'gave  way  to  his  pocket-handkerchief,'  to 
use  one  of  his  old  humorous  remarks,  in  a  most  vigorous 
manner.  In  return  for  his  teasing  me  for  reading  the 
work  weekly,  I  could  not  refrain  from  saying  demurely, 
as  I  passed  him  once:  'You  seem  to  have  a  severe  cold, 
Henry.  How  could  you  have  taken  it  ? '  But  what  did 
I  gain?  Not  even  a  half-annoyed  shake  of  the  head,  or 
the  semblance  of  a  smile.  I  might  as  well  have  spoken 
to  the  Sphinx. 

"When  reminded  that  the  dinner-bell  had  rung,  he 
rose  and  went  to  the  table,  still  with  his  book  in  his 
hand.  He  asked  the  blessing  with  a  tremor  in  his  voice, 
which  showed  the  intense  excitement  under  which  he 
was  laboring.  We  were  alone  at  the  table,  and  there 
was  nothing  to  distract  his  thoughts.     He  drank  his 


96     THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

coffee,  ate  but  little,  and  returned  to  his  reading,  with 
no  thought  of  indulging  in  his  usual  nap.  His  almost 
uncontrollable  excitement  revealed  itself  in  frequent 
half-suppressed  sobs. 

"Mr.  Beecher  was  a  very  slow  reader.  I  was  getting 
uneasy  over  the  marks  of  strong  feeling  and  excitement, 
and  longed  to  have  him  finish  the  book.  I  could  see 
that  he  entered  into  the  whole  story,  every  scene,  as  if 
it  were  being  acted  right  before  him,  and  he  himself 
were  the  sufferer.  He  had  always  been  a  pronounced 
Abolitionist,  and  the  story  he  was  reading  roused  in- 
tensely all  he  had  felt  on  that  subject. 

"The  night  came  on.  It  was  growing  late,  and  I  felt 
impelled  to  urge  him  to  retire.  Without  raising  his  eyes 
from  the  book,  he  replied: 

"'Soon;  soon;  you  go;  I'll  come  soon.' 
"Closing  the  house,  I  went  to  our  room;  but  not  to 
sleep.  The  clock  struck  twelve,  one,  two,  three;  and 
then,  to  my  great  relief,  I  heard  Mr.  Beecher  coming 
up-stairs.  As  he  entered,  he  threw  Uncle  Tom^s  Cabin 
on  the  table,  exclaiming:  'There;  I've  done  it!  But  if 
Hattie  Stowe  ever  writes  anything  more  like  that  I'll — 
well !  She  has  nearly  killed  me.' 
"And  he  never  picked  up  the  book  from  that  day." 
Any  one  who  knew  Henry  Ward  Beecher  at  all  knew 
of  his  love  of  books.  He  was,  however,  most  prodigal 
in  lending  his  books  and  he  always  forgot  the  borrowers. 
Then  when  he  wanted  a  certain  volume  from  his  library 
he  could  not  find  it.  He  would,  of  course,  have  forgotten 
the  borrower,  but  he  had  a  unique  method  of  tracing  the 
book. 


ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER    97 

One  evening  the  great  preacher  suddenly  appeared 
at  a  friend's  house  and,  quietly  entering  the  drawing- 
room  without  removing  his  overcoat,  he  walked  up  to  his 
friend  and  said: 

"Rossiter,  why  don't  you  bring  back  that  Ruskin  of 
mine  that  I  lent  you?" 

The  man  colored  to  the  roots  of  his  hair.  "Why, 
Mr.  Beecher,"  he  said,  "I'll  go  upstairs  and  get  it  for 
you  right  away.  I  would  not  have  kept  it  so  long,  only 
you  told  me  I  might." 

At  this  Beecher  burst  into  a  fit  of  merry  laughter. 
"Found !  Found !"  he  shouted,  as  he  took  off  his  over- 
coat and  threw  himself  into  a  chair. 

When  he  could  stop  laughing,  he  said:  "You  know, 
Rossiter,  that  I  am  always  ready  to  lend  my  books  to 
any  one  who  will  make  good  use  of  them  and  bring  them 
back,  but  I  always  forget  to  whom  I  lend  them.  It 
happened,  in  this  case,  that  I  wanted  that  volume  of 
Ruskin  about  a  week  ago;  but  when  I  went  to  the  shelf 
for  it,  it  was  gone.  I  knew  I  must  have  lent  it,  but  to 
whom  I  could  not  remember.  During  the  past  week,  I 
began  to  demand  the  book  of  every  friend  I  met  to  whom 
I  might  have  lent  it.  Of  course,  every  one  of  them  pro- 
tested innocence;  but  at  last  I've  struck  the  guilty 
man.  I  shall  know,  in  future,  how  to  find  my  missing 
books.     The  plan  works  beautifully." 

One  evening,  after  supper,  Air.  Beecher  said  to  his  wife: 
"Mother,  what  material  have  we  among  our  papers 
about  our  early  Indiana  days?" 

Mr.  Beecher  had  long  been  importuned  to  write  his 


98      THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

autobiography,  and  he  had  decided  to  do  it  after  he  had 
finished  his  Life  of  Christ. 

Mrs.  Beecher  had  two  boxes  brought  into  the  room. 

"Suppose  you  look  into  that  box,  if  you  will,"  said 
Mr.  Beecher  to  Edward,  "and  I'll  take  this  one,  and 
we'll  see  what  we  can  find  about  that  time.  Mother, 
you  supervise  and  see  how  we  look  on  the  floor." 

And  Mr.  Beecher  sat  down  on  the  floor  in  front  of  one 
box,  shoemaker-fashion,  while  Edward,  likewise  on  the 
floor,  started  on  the  other  box. 

It  was  a  dusty  job,  and  the  little  room  began  to  be 
filled  with  particles  of  dust  which  set  Mrs.  Beecher 
coughing.  At  last  she  said :  "  I'll  leave  you  two  to  finish. 
I  have  some  things  to  do  up-stairs,  and  then  I'll  retire. 
Don't  be  too  late,  Henry,"  she  said. 

It  was  one  of  those  rare  evenings  for  Mr.  Beecher — 
absolutely  free  from  interruption;  and,  with  his  memory 
constantly  taken  back  to  his  early  days,  he  continued 
in  a  reminiscent  mood  that  was  charmingly  intimate 
to  the  boy. 

"Found  something?"  he  asked  at  one  intermission 
when  quiet  had  reigned  longer  than  usual,  and  he  saw 
Edward  studying  a  huge  pile  of  papers. 

"No,  sir,"  said  the  boy.  "Only  a  lot  of  papers  about 
a  suit." 

"What  suit?"  asked  Mr.  Beecher  mechanically,  with 
his  head  buried  in  his  box. 

"I  don't  know,  sir,"  Edward  replied  naively,  little 
knowing  what  he  was  reopening  to  the  preacher.  "*  Til- 
ton  versus  Beecher'  they  are  marked." 

Mr.   Beecher  said  nothing,   and  after  the  boy  had 


ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD   BEECHER    99 

fingered  the  papers  he  chanced  to  look  in  the  preacher's 
direction  and  found  him  watching  him  intently  with  a 
curiously  serious  look  in  his  face. 

"Must  have  been  a  big  suit,"  commented  the  boy. 
"Here's  another  pile  of  papers  about  it." 

Edward  could  not  make  out  Mr.  Beecher's  steady 
look  at  him  as  he  sat  there  on  the  floor  mechanically 
playing  with  a  paper  in  his  hand. 

"Yes,"  he  finally  said,  "it  was  a  big  suit.  What  does 
it  mean  to  you?"  he  asked  suddenly. 

"To  me?"  Edward  asked.     "Nothing,  sir.     Why?" 

Mr.  Beecher  said  nothing  for  a  few  moments,  and 
turned  to  his  box  to  examine  some  more  papers. 

Then  the  boy  asked:  "Was  the  Beecher  in  this  suit 
you,  Mr.  Beecher?" 

Again  was  turned  on  him  that  serious,  questioning 
look. 

"Yes,"  he  said  after  a  bit.  Then  he  thought  again 
for  a  few  moments  and  said:    "How  old  were  you  in 

1875?" 

"Twelve,"  the  boy  replied. 

"Twelve,"  he  repeated.     "Twelve." 

He  turned  again  to  his  box  and  Edward  to  his. 

"There  doesn't  seem  to  be  anything  more  in  this 
box,"  the  boy  said,  "but  more  papers  in  that  suit," 
and  he  began  to  put  the  papers  back. 

"What  do  you  know  about  that  'suit, '  as  you  call  it?" 
asked  Mr.  Beecher,  stopping  in  his  work. 

"Nothing,"  was  the  reply.     "I  never  heard  of  it." 

"Never  heard  of  it?"  he  repeated,  and  he  fastened 
that  curious  look  upon  Edward  again.     It  was  so  com- 


lOO  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

peUing  that  it  held  the  boy.  For  several  moments  they 
looked  at  each  other.     Neither  spoke. 

"That  seems  strange,"  he  said,  at  last,  as  he  renewed 
the  search  of  his  box.  "Never  heard  of  it,"  he  repeated 
almost  to  himself. 

Then  for  fully  five  minutes  not  a  word  was  spoken. 

"But  you  will  some  day,"  said  Mr.  Beecher  sud- 
denly, i 

"I  will  what,  Mr.  Beecher?"  asked  the  boy.  He 
had  forgotten  the  previous  remark. 

Mr.  Beecher  looked  at  Edward  and  sighed.  "Hear 
about  it,"  he  said. 

"I  don't  think  I  understand  you,"  was  the  reply. 

"No,  I  don't  think  you  do,"  he  said.  "I  mean,  you 
r/ill  some  day  hear  about  that  suit.  And  I  don't  know," 
then  he  hesitated,  "but — but  you  might  as  well  get  it 
straight.  You  say  you  were  twelve  then,"  he  mused. 
"What  were  you  doing  when  you  were  twelve?" 

"Going  to  school,"  was  the  reply. 

"Yes,  of  course,"  said  Mr.  Beecher.  "Well,"  he 
continued,  turning  on  his  haunches  so  that  his  back 
rested  against  the  box,  "I  am  going  to  tell  you  the  story 
of  that  suit,  and  then  you'll  know  it." 

Edward  said  nothing,  and  then  began  the  recital  of  a 
story  that  he  was  destined  to  remember.  It  was  inter- 
esting then,  as  Mr.  Beecher  progressed;  but  how  thrice 
interesting  that  wonderful  recital  was  to  prove  as  the 
years  rolled  by  and  the  boy  realized  the  wonderful  tell- 
ing of  that  of  all  stories  by  Mr.  Beecher  himself ! 

Slowly,  and  in  that  wonderfully  low,  mellow  voice 
that  so  many  knew  and  loved,  step  by  step,  came  the 


ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER     loi 

unfolding  of  that  remarkable  story.  Once  or  twice  only 
did  the  voice  halt,  as  when,  after  he  had  explained  the 
basis  of  the  famous  suit,  he  said: 

"Those  were  the  charges.  That  is  what  it  was  all 
about." 

Then  he  looked  at  Edward  and  asked:  "Do  you  know 
just  what  such  charges  mean  ?  " 

"I  think  I  do,"  Edward  rephed,  and  the  question 
was  asked  with  such  feeUng,  and  the  answer  was  said  so 
mechanically,  that  Mr.  Beecher  replied  simply:  "Per- 
haps." 

"Well,"  he  continued,  "the  suit  was  a  'long  one,' 
as  you  said.  For  days  and  weeks,  yes,  for  months,  it 
went  on,  from  January  to  July,  and  those  were  very 
full  days:  full  of  so  many  things  that  you  would  hardly 
understand." 

And  then  he  told  the  boy  as  much  of  the  days  in  court 
as  he  thought  he  would  understand,  and  how  the  lawyers 
worked  and  worked,  in  court  all  day,  and  up  half  the 
night,  preparing  for  the  next  day.  "  Mostly  around  that 
Uttle  table  there,"  he  said,  pointing  to  a  white,  marble- 
topped  table  against  which  the  boy  was  leaning,  and 
which  now  stands  in  Edward  Bok's  study. 

"Finally  the  end  came,"  he  said,  "after — well,  months. 
To  some  it  seemed  years,"  said  Mr.  Beecher,  and  his 
eyes  looked  tired. 

"Well,"  he  continued,  "the  case  went  to  the  Jury: 
the  men,  you  know,  who  had  to  decide.  There  were 
twelve  of  them." 

"Was  it  necessary  that  all  twelve  should  think  aUke?" 
asked  the  boy. 


I02   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

"That  was  what  was  hoped,  my  boy,"  said  Mr. 
Beecher — "that  was  what  was  hoped,"  he  repeated. 

"Well,  they  did,  didn't  they?"  Edward  asked,  as 
Mr.  Beecher  stopped. 

"Nine  did,"  he  replied.  "Yes;  nine  did.  But  three 
didn't.  Three  thought — "  Mr.  Beecher  stopped  and 
did  not  finish  the  sentence.  "But  nine  did,"  he  repeated. 
"Nine  to  three  it  stood.  That  was  the  decision,  and 
then  the  judge  discharged  the  jury,"  he  said. 

There  was  naturally  one  question  in  the  boyish  mind 
to  ask  the  man  before  him — one  question!  Yet,  in- 
stinctively, something  within  him  made  him  hesitate  to 
ask  that  question.  But  at  last  his  curiosity  got  the 
better  of  the  still,  small  voice  of  judgment. 

"And,  Mr.  Beecher — "  the  boy  began. 

But  Mr.  Beecher  knew!  He  knew  what  was  at  the 
end  of  the  tongue,  looked  clear  into  the  boy's  mind; 
and  Edward  can  still  see  him  Hft  that  fine  head  and 
look  into  his  eyes,  as  he  said,  slowly  and  clearly: 

"And  the  decision  of  the  nine  was  in  exact  accord 
with  the  facts." 

He  had  divined  the  question ! 

As  the  two  rose  from  the  floor  that  night  Edward 
looked  at  the  clock.  It  was  past  midnight;  Mr.  Beecher 
had  talked  for  two  hours;  the  boy  had  spoken  hardly  at 
all. 

As  the  boy  was  going  out,  he  turned  to  Mr.  Beecher 
sitting  thoughtfully  in  his  chair. 

"Good  night,  Mr.  Beecher,"  he  said. 

The  Plymouth  pastor  pulled  himself  together,  and 
with  that  wit  that  never  forsook  him  he  looked  at  the 


ASSOCIATION  WITH  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER     103 

clock,  smiled,  and  answered:  "Good  morning,  I  should 
say.  God  bless  you,  my  boy."  Then  rising,  he  put  his 
arm  around  the  boy's  shoulders  and  walked  with  him  to 
the  door. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  FIRST  "WOMAN'S  PAGE,"  "LITERARY  LEAVES," 
AND  ENTERING  SCRIBNER'S 

Mr.  Beecher's  weekly  newspaper  "syndicate"  letter 
was  not  only  successful  in  itself,  it  made  liberal  money 
for  the  writer  and  for  its  two  young  publishers,  but  it 
served  to  introduce  Edward  Bok's  proposed  agency  to 
the  newspapers  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 
With  one  stroke,  the  attention  of  newspaper  editors  had 
been  attracted,  and  Edward  concluded  to  take  quick 
advantage  of  it.  He  organized  the  Bok  Syndicate  Press, 
with  offices  in  New  York,  and  his  brother,  William  J. 
Bok,  as  partner  and  active  manager.  Edward's  days 
were  occupied,  of  course,  with  his  duties  in  the  Holt 
pubHshing  house,  where  he  was  acquiring  a  first-hand 
knowledge  of  the  business. 

Edward's  attention  was  now  turned,  for  the  first 
time,  to  women  and  their  reading  habits.  He  became 
interested  in  the  fact  that  the  American  woman  was  not 
a  newspaper  reader.  He  tried  to  find  out  the  psychology 
of  this,  and  finally  reached  the  conclusion,  on  looking 
over  the  newspapers,  that  the  absence  of  any  distinc- 
tive material  for  women  was  a  factor.  He  talked  the 
matter  over  with  several  prominent  New  York  editors, 
who  frankly  acknowledged  that  they  would  Hke  noth- 
ing better  than  to  interest  women,  and  make  them 

readers  of  their  papers.    But  they  were  equally  frank  in 

104 


THE  FIRST  "WOMAN'S  PAGE"  105 

confessing  that  they  were  ignorant  both  of  what  women 
wanted,  and,  even  if  they  knew,  of  where  such  material 
was  to  be  had.  Edward  at  once  saw  that  here  was  an 
open  field.  It  was  a  productive  field,  since,  as  woman 
was  the  purchasing  power,  it  would  benefit  the  news- 
paper enormously  in  its  advertising  if  it  could  oflfer  a 
feminine  clientele. 

There  was  a  bright  letter  of  New  York  gossip  pub- 
lished in  the  New  York  Star,  called  ''Bab's  Babble." 
Edward  had  read  it,  and  saw  the  possibility  of  syndicat- 
ing this  item  as  a  woman's  letter  from  New  York.  He 
instinctively  realized  that  women  all  over  the  country 
would  read  it.  He  sought  out  the  author,  made  arrange- 
ments with  her  and  with  former  Governor  Dorscheimer, 
owner  of  the  paper,  and  the  letter  was  sent  out  to  a 
group  of  papers.  It  was  an  instantaneous  success,  and 
a  syndicate  of  ninety  newspapers  was  quickly  organized. 

Edward  followed  this  up  by  engaging  Ella  Wheeler 
Wilcox,  then  at  the  height  of  her  career,  to  write  a 
weekly  letter  on  women's  topics.  This  he  syndicated  in 
conjunction  with  the  other  letter,  and  the  editors  in- 
variably grouped  the  two  letters.  This,  in  turn,  nat- 
urally led  to  the  idea  of  supplying  an  entire  page  of 
matter  of  interest  to  women.  The  plan  was  proposed 
to  a  number  of  editors,  who  at  once  saw  the  possibil- 
ities in  it  and  promised  support.  The  young  syndicator 
now  laid  under  contribution  all  the  famous  women 
writers  of  the  day;  he  chose  the  best  of  the  men  writers 
to  write  on  women's  topics;  and  it  was  not  long  before 
the  syndicate  was  supplying  a  page  of  women's  material. 
The  newspapers  played  up  the  innovation,  and  thus  was 


io6  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

introduced  into  the  newspaper  press  of  the  United  States 
the  "Woman's  Page." 

The  material  supplied  by  the  Bok  Syndicate  Press 
was  of  the  best;  the  standard  was  kept  high;  the 
writers  were  selected  from  among  the  most  popular 
authors  of  the  day;  and  readability  was  the  cardinal 
note.  The  women  bought  the  newspapers  containing 
the  new  page,  the  advertiser  began  to  feel  the  pres- 
ence of  the  new  reader,  and  every  newspaper  that 
could  not  get  the  rights  for  the  "Bok  Page,"  as  it 
came  to  be  known,  started  a  "Woman's  Page"  of  its 
own.  Naturally,  the  material  so  obtained  was  of  an 
inferior  character.  No  single  newspaper  could  afford 
what  the  syndicate,  with  the  expense  divided  among  a 
hundred  newspapers,  could  pay.  Nor  had  the  editors 
of  these  woman's  pages  either  a  standard  or  a  policy. 
In  desperation  they  engaged  any  person  they  could  to 
"get  a  lot  of  woman's  stuff."  It  was  stuff,  and  of  the 
trashiest  kind.  So  that  almost  coincident  with  the 
birth  of  the  idea  began  its  abuse  and  disintegration; 
the  result  we  see  in  the  meaningless  presentations  which 
pass  for  "woman's  pages"  in  the  newspaper  of  to-day. 

This  is  true  even  of  the  woman's  material  in  the  lead- 
ing newspapers,  and  the  reason  is  not  difficult  to  find. 
The  average  editor  has,  as  a  rule,  no  time  to  study  the 
changing  conditions  of  women's  interests;  his  time  is 
and  must  be  engrossed  by  the  news  and  editorial  pages. 
He  usually  delegates  the  Sunday  "specials"  to  some 
editor  who,  again,  has  little  time  to  study  the  ever- 
changing  women's  problems,  particularly  in  these  days, 
and  he  relies  upon  unintelligent  advice,  or  he  places  his 


"LITERARY  LEAVES"  107 

"woman's  page"  in  the  hands  of  some  woman  with  the 
comfortable  assurance  that,  being  a  woman,  she  ought 
to  know  what  interests  her  sex. 

But  having  given  the  subject  little  thought,  he  attaches 
minor  importance  to  the  woman's  "stuff,"  regarding  it 
rather  in  the  light  of  something  that  he  "must  carry  to 
catch  the  women";  and  forthwith  he  either  forgets  it 
or  refuses  to  give  the  editor  of  his  woman's  page  even  a 
reasonable  allowance  to  spend  on  her  material.  The  re- 
sult is,  of  course,  inevitable:  pages  of  worthless  material. 
There  is,  in  fact,  no  part  of  the  Sunday  newspaper  of 
to-day  upon  which  so  much  good  and  now  expensi\'e 
white  paper  is  wasted  as  upon  the  pages  marked  for  the 
home,  for  women,  and  for  children. 

Edward  Bok  now  became  convinced,  from  his  book- 
publishing  association,  that  if  the  American  women  were 
not  reading  the  newspapers,  the  American  public,  as  a 
whole,  was  not  reading  the  number  of  books  that  it 
should,  considering  the  intelligence  and  wealth  of  the 
people,  and  the  cheap  prices  at  which  books  were  sold. 
He  concluded  to  see  whether  he  could  not  induce  the 
newspapers  to  give  larger  and  more  prominent  space  to 
the  news  of  the  book  world. 

Owing  to  his  constant  contact  with  authors,  he  was  in 
a  peculiarly  fortunate  position  to  know  their  plans  in 
advance  of  execution,  and  he  was  beginning  to  learn  the 
ins  and  outs  of  the  book-publishing  world.  He  can- 
vassed the  newspapers  subscribing  to  his  syndicate 
features,  but  found  a  disinclination  to  give  space  to 
literary  news.  To  the  average  editor,  purely  literary 
features  held  less  of  an  appeal  than  did  the  features  for 


io8  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

women.  Fewer  persons  were  interested  in  books,  they 
declared;  besides,  the  publishing  houses  were  not  so 
liberal  advertisers  as  the  department  stores.  The  whole 
question  rested  on  a  commercial  basis. 

Edward  believed  he  could  convince  editors  of  the 
public  interest  in  a  newsy,  readable  New  York  literary 
letter,  and  he  prevailed  upon  the  editor  of  the  New 
York  Star  to  allow  him  to  supplement  the  book  reviews 
of  George  Parsons  Lathrop  in  that  paper  by  a  column 
of  Uterary  chat  called  "Literary  Leaves."  For  a  num- 
ber of  weeks  he  continued  to  write  this  department, 
and  confine  it  to  the  New  York  paper,  feeling  that  he 
needed  the  experience  for  the  acquirement  of  a  readable 
style,  and  he  wanted  to  be  sure  that  he  had  opened  a 
sufficient  number  of  productive  news  channels  to  ensure 
a  continuous  flow  of  readable  literary  information. 

Occasionally  he  sent  to  an  editor  here  and  there  what 
he  thought  was  a  particularly  newsy  letter  just  "for 
his  information,  not  for  sale."  The  editor  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Times  was  the  first  to  discover  that  his  paper 
wanted  the  letter,  and  the  Boston  Journal  followed  suit. 
Then  the  editor  of  the  Cincinnati  Times-Star  discovered 
the  letter  in  the  New  York  Star,  and  asked  that  it  be 
supplied  weekly  with  the  letter.  These  newspapers 
renamed  the  letter  "Bok's  Literary  Leaves,"  and  the 
feature  started  on  its  successful  career. 

Edward  had  been  in  the  employ  of  Henry  Holt  and 
Company  as  clerk  and  stenographer  for  two  years  when 
Mr.  Gary  sent  for  him  and  told  him  that  there  was  an 
opening  in  the  publishing  house  of  Gharles  Scribner's 
Sons,  if  he  wanted  to  make  a  change.    Edward  saw  at 


ENTERING  SCRIBNER'S  109 

once  the  larger  opportunities  possible  in  a  house  of  the 
importance  of  the  Scribners,  and  he  immediately  placed 
himself  in  communication  with  Mr.  Charles  Scribner, 
with  the  result  that  in  January,  1884,  he  entered  the 
employ  of  these  publishers  as  stenographer  to  the  two 
members  of  the  firm  and  to  Mr.  Edward  L.  Burlingame, 
literary  adviser  to  the  house.  He  was  to  receive  a 
salary  of  eighteen  dollars  and  thirty-three  cents  per 
week,  which  was  then  considered  a  fair  wage  for  steno- 
graphic work.  The  typewriter  had  at  that  time  not 
come  into  use,  and  all  letters  were  written  in  long-hand. 
Once  more  his  legible  handwriting  had  secured  for  him  a 
position. 

Edward  Bok  was  now  twenty-one  years  of  age.  He 
had  already  done  a  prodigious  amount  of  work  for  a  boy 
of  his  years.  He  was  always  busy.  Every  spare  mo- 
ment of  his  evenings  was  devoted  either  to  writing  his 
Uterary  letter,  to  the  arrangement  or  editing  of  articles 
for  his  newspaper  syndicate,  to  the  steady  acquirement 
of  autograph  letters  in  which  he  still  persisted,  or  to 
helping  Mr.  Beecher  in  his  literary  work.  The  Plym- 
outh pastor  was  particularly  pleased  with  Edward's 
successful  exploitation  of  his  pen  work;  and  he  after- 
ward wrote:  "Bok  is  the  only  man  who  ever  seemed  to 
make  my  literary  work  go  and  get  money  out  of  it." 

Enterprise  and  energy  the  boy  unquestionably  pos- 
sessed, but  one  need  only  think  back  even  thus  far  in 
his  life  to  see  the  continuous  good  fortune  which  had 
followed  him  in  the  friendships  he  had  made,  and  in 
the  men  with  whom  his  life,  at  its  most  formative  period, 
had  come  into  close  contact.    If  we  are  inclined  to  credit 


no  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

young  Bok  with  an  ever- willingness  to  work  and  a  cer- 
tain quality  of  initiative,  the  influences  which  played 
upon  him  must  also  be  taken  into  account. 

Take,  for  example,  the  peculiarly  fortuitous  circum- 
stances under  which  he  entered  the  Scribner  pubUshing 
house.  As  stenographer  to  the  two  members  of  the 
firm,  Bok  was  immediately  brought  into  touch  with 
the  leading  authors  of  the  day,  their  works  as  they  were 
discussed  in  the  correspondence  dictated  to  him,  and 
the  authors'  terms  upon  which  books  were  published. 
In  fact,  he  was  given  as  close  an  insight  as  it  was  pos- 
sible for  a  young  man  to  get  into  the  inner  workings  of 
one  of  the  large  publishing  houses  in  the  United  States, 
with  a  list  peculiarly  noted  for  the  distinction  of  its 
authors  and  the  broad  scope  of  its  books. 

The  Scribners  had  the  foremost  theological  list  of  all 
the  publishing  houses;  its  educational  list  was  excep- 
tionally strong;  its  musical  list  excelled;  its  fiction  rep- 
resented the  leading  writers  of  the  day;  its  general  list 
was  particularly  noteworthy ;  and  its  foreign  department, 
importing  the  leading  books  brought  out  in  Great 
Britain  and  Europe,  was  an  outstanding  feature  of  the 
business.  The  correspondence  dictated  to  Bok  cov- 
ered, naturally,  all  these  fields,  and  a  more  remarkable 
opportunity  for  self-education  was  never  offered  a 
stenographer. 

Mr.  Burlingame  was  known  in  the  publishing  world 
for  his  singularly  keen  literary  appreciation,  and  was 
accepted  as  one  of  the  best  judges  of  good  fiction. 
Bok  entered  the  Scribner  employ  as  Mr.  Burlingame  was 
selecting  the  best  short  stories  published  within  a  decade 


ENTERING  SCRIBNER'S  III 

for  a  set  of  books  to  be  called  "Short  Stories  by  Amer- 
ican Authors."  The  correspondence  for  this  series  was 
dictated  to  Bok,  and  he  decided  to  read  after  Mr. 
Burlingame  and  thus  get  an  idea  of  the  best  fiction  of 
the  day.  So  whenever  his  chief  wrote  to  an  author 
asking  for  permission  to  include  his  story  in  the  pro- 
posed series,  Bok  immediately  hunted  up  the  story  and 
read  it. 

Later,  when  the  house  decided  to  start  Scribner^s 
Magazine,  and  Mr.  Burlingame  was  selected  to  be  its 
editor,  all  the  preUminary  correspondence  was  dictated 
to  Bok  through  his  employers,  and  he  received  a  first- 
hand education  in  the  setting  up  of  the  machinery 
necessary  for  the  publication  of  a  magazine.  All  this 
he  eagerly  absorbed. 

He  was  again  fortunate  in  that  his  desk  was  placed  in 
the  advertising  department  of  the  house;  and  here  he 
found,  as  manager,  an  old-time  Brooklyn  boy  friend 
with  whom  he  had  gone  to  school:  Frank  N.  Doubleday, 
to-day  the  senior  partner  of  Doubleday,  Page  and  Com- 
pany. Bok  had  been  attracted  to  advertising  through 
his  theatre  programme  and  Brooklyn  Magazine  experi- 
ence, and  here  was  presented  a  chance  to  learn  the  art 
at  first  hand  and  according  to  the  best  traditions.  So, 
whenever  his  stenographic  work  permitted,  he  assisted 
Mr.  Doubleday  in  preparing  and  placing  the  advertise- 
ments of  the  books  of  the  house. 

Mr.  Doubleday  was  just  reviving  the  publication  of 
a  house-organ  called  The  Book  Buyer,  and,  given 
a  chance  to  help  in  this,  Bok  felt  he  was  getting  back 
into  the   periodical   field,  especially   since,  under   Mr. 


112   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Doubleday's  guidance,  the  little  monthly  soon  developed 
into  a  literary  magazine  of  very  respectable  size  and 
generally  bookish  contents. 

The  house  also  issued  another  periodical,  The  Presby- 
terian Review,  a  quarterly  under  the  editorship  of  a 
board  of  professors  connected  with  the  Princeton  and 
Union  Theological  Seminaries.  This  ponderous-looking 
magazine  was  not  composed  of  what  one  might  call 
"light  reading,"  and  as  the  price  of  a  single  copy  was 
eighty  cents,  and  the  advertisements  it  could  reason- 
ably expect  were  necessarily  limited  in  number,  the 
periodical  was  rather  difficult  to  move.  Thus  the  whole 
situation  at  the  Scribners'  was  adapted  to  give  Edward 
an  all-round  training  in  the  publishing  business.  It  was 
an  exceptional  opportunity. 

He  worked  early  and  late.  An  increase  in  his  salary 
soon  told  him  that  he  was  satisfying  his  employers,  and 
then,  when  the  new  Scribner's  Magazine  appeared,  and 
a  little  later  Mr.  Doubleday  was  delegated  to  take 
charge  of  the  business  end  of  it,  Bok  himself  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  advertising  department,  with  the  pub- 
lishing details  of  the  two  periodicals  on  his  hands. 

He  suddenly  found  himself  directing  a  stenographer 
instead  of  being  a  stenographer  himself.  Evidently  his 
apprentice  days  were  over.  He  had,  in  addition,  the 
charge  of  sending  all  the  editorial  copies  of  the  new  books 
to  the  press  for  review,  and  of  keeping  a  record  of  those 
reviews.  This  naturally  brought  to  his  desk  the  authors 
of  the  house  who  wished  to  see  how  the  press  received 
their  works. 

The  study  of  the  writers  who  were  interested  in  fol- 


ENTERING  SCRIBNER'S  113 

lowing  the  press  notices  of  their  books,  and  those  who 
were  indififerent  to  them  became  a  fascinating  game  to 
young  Bok.  He  soon  discovered  that  the  greater  the 
author  the  less  he  seemed  to  care  about  his  books  once 
they  were  published.  Bok  noticed  this,  particularly,  in 
the  case  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  whose  work  had 
attracted  him,  but,  although  he  used  the  most  subtle 
means  to  inveigle  the  author  into  the  office  to  read 
the  press  notices,  he  never  succeeded.  Stevenson  never 
seemed  to  have  the  shghtest  interest  in  what  the  press 
said  of  his  books. 

One  day  Mr.  Burhngame  asked  Bok  to  take  some 
proofs  to  Stevenson  at  his  home;  thinking  it  might  be  a 
propitious  moment  to  interest  the  author  in  the  popular 
acclaim  that  followed  the  publication  of  Doctor  Jekyll 
arid  Mr.  Hyde,  Bok  put  a  bunch  of  press  notices  in  his 
pocket.  He  found  the  author  in  bed,  smoking  his  in- 
evitable cigarette. 

As  the  proofs  were  to  be  brought  back,  Bok  waited, 
and  thus  had  an  opportunity  for  nearly  two  hours  to 
see  the  author  at  work.  No  man  ever  went  over  his 
proofs  more  carefully  than  did  Stevenson;  his  correc- 
tions were  numerous;  and  sometimes  for  ten  minutes  at 
a  time  he  would  sit  smoking  and  thinking  over  a  single 
sentence,  which,  when  he  had  satisfactorily  shaped  it  in 
his  mind,  he  would  recast  on  the  proof. 

Stevenson  was  not  a  prepossessing  figure  at  these  times. 
With  his  sallow  skin  and  his  black  dishevelled  hair,  with 
finger-nails  which  had  been  allowed  to  grow  very  long, 
with  fingers  discolored  by  tobacco — in  short,  with  a 
general  untidiness  that  was  all  his  own,  Stevenson,  so 


114  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Bok  felt,  was  an  author  whom  it  was  better  to  read  than 
to  see.  And  yet  his  kindliness  and  gentleness  more  than 
offset  the  unattractiveness  of  his  physical  appearance. 

After  one  or  two  visits  from  Bok,  having  grown  ac- 
customed to  him,  Stevenson  would  discuss  some  sentence 
in  an  article,  or  read  some  amended  paragraph  out  loud 
and  ask  whether  Bok  thought  it  sounded  better.  To 
pass  upon  Stevenson  as  a  stylist  was,  of  course,  hardly 
within  Bok's  mental  reach,  so  he  kept  discreetly  silent 
when  Stevenson  asked  his  opinion. 

In  fact,  Bok  reasoned  it  out  that  the  novelist  did  not 
really  expect  an  answer  or  an  opinion,  but  was  at  such 
times  thinking  aloud.  The  mental  process,  however, 
was  immensely  interesting,  particularly  when  Stevenson 
would  ask  Bok  to  hand  him  a  book  on  words  lying  on  an 
adjacent  table.  "So  hard  to  find  just  the  right  word," 
Stevenson  would  say,  and  Bok  got  his  first  realization  of 
the  truth  of  the  maxim:  "Easy  writing,  hard  reading; 
hard  writing,  easy  reading." 

On  this  particular  occasion  when  Stevenson  finished, 
Bok  pulled  out  his  clippings,  told  the  author  how  his 
book  was  being  received,  and  was  selling,  what  the  house 
was  doing  to  advertise  it,  explained  the  forthcoming  play 
by  Richard  Mansfield,  and  then  offered  the  press 
notices. 

Stevenson  took  the  bundle  and  held  it  in  his  hand. 

"That's  very  nice  to  tell  me  all  you  have,"  he  said, 
"and  I  have  been  greatly  interested.  But  you  have 
really  told  me  all  about  it,  haven't  you,  so  why  should  I 
read  these  notices  ?  Hadn't  I  better  get  busy  on  another 
paper  for  Mr.  Burlingame  for  the  next  magazine,  else 


ENTERING  SCRIBNER'S  115 

he'll  be  after  me  ?  You  know  how  impatient  these  edi- 
tors are."    And  he  handed  back  the  notices. 

Bok  saw  it  was  of  no  use :  Stevenson  was  interested  in 
his  work,  but,  beyond  a  certain  point,  not  in  the  world's 
reception  of  it.  Bok's  estimate  of  the  author  rose  im- 
measurably. His  attitude  was  in  such  sharp  contrast  to 
that  of  others  who  came  almost  daily  into  the  office  to 
see  what  the  papers  said,  often  causing  discomfiture  to 
the  young  advertising  director  by  insisting  upon  taking 
the  notices  with  them.  But  Bok  always  countered  this 
desire  by  reminding  the  author  that,  of  course,  in  that 
case  he  could  not  quote  from  these  desirable  notices 
in  his  advertisements  of  the  book.  And,  invariably,  the 
notices  were  left  behind ! 

It  now  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  young  advertiser  to  arouse 
the  interest  of  the  public  in  what  were  to  be  some  of  the 
most  widely  read  and  best-known  books  of  the  day: 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde; 
Frances  Hodgson  Burnett's  Little  Lord  Fauntleroy; 
Andrew  Carnegie's  Triumphant  Democracy;  Frank  R. 
Stockton's  The  Lady,  or  the  Tiger?  and  his  Rtidder 
Grange,  and  a  succession  of  other  books. 

The  advertising  of  these  books  keenly  sharpened  the 
publicity  sense  of  the  developing  advertising  director. 
One  book  could  best  be  advertised  by  the  conventional 
means  of  the  display  advertisement;  another,  like  Trium- 
phant Democracy,  was  best  served  by  sending  out  to  the 
newspapers  a  "broadside"  of  pungent  extracts;  public 
curiosity  in  a  novel  like  The  Lady,  or  the  Tiger  ?  was,  of 
course,  whetted  by  the  publication  of  literary  notes  as 
to  the  real  denouement  the  author  had  in  mind  in 


ii6   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

writing  the  story.  Whenever  Mr.  Stockton  came  into 
the  office  Bok  pumped  him  dry  as  to  his  experiences 
with  the  story,  such  as  when,  at  a  dinner  party,  his 
hostess  served  an  ice-cream  lady  and  a  tiger  to  the  au- 
thor, and  the  whole  company  watched  which  he  chose. 

"And  which  did  you  choose?"  asked  the  advertising 
director. 

"E/  tu,  Brute?"  Stockton  smiHngly  repHed.  "Well, 
I'll  tell  you.  I  asked  the  butler  to  bring  me  another 
spoon,  and  then,  with  a  spoon  in  each  hand,  I  attacked 
both  the  lady  and  the  tiger  at  the  same  time." 

Once,  when  Stockton  was  going  to  Boston  by  the 
night  boat,  every  room  was  taken.  The  ticket  agent 
recognized  the  author,  and  promised  to  get  him  a  de- 
sirable room  if  the  author  would  tell  which  he  had  had 
in  mind,  the  lady  or  the  tiger. 

"Produce  the  room,"  answered  Stockton. 

The  man  did.  Stockton  paid  for  it,  and  then  said: 
"To  tell  you  the  truth,  my  friend,  I  don't  know." 

And  that  was  the  truth,  as  Mr.  Stockton  confessed  to 
his  friends.  The  idea  of  the  story  had  fascinated  him; 
when  he  began  it  he  purposed  to  give  it  a  definite 
ending.  But  when  he  reached  the  end  he  didn't  know 
himself  which  to  produce  out  of  the  open  door,  the  lady 
or  the  tiger,  "and  so,"  he  used  to  explain,  "I  made  up 
my  mind  to  leave  it  hanging  in  the  air." 

To  the  present  generation  of  readers,  all  this  reference 
to  Stockton's  story  may  sound  strange,  but  for  months 
it  was  the  most  talked-of  story  of  the  time,  and  sold  into 
large  numbers. 

One  day  while  Mr.  Stockton  was  in  Bok's  office,  A. 


ENTERING  SCRIBNER'S  117 

B.  Frost,  the  illustrator,  came  in.  Frost  had  become  a 
full-fledged  farmer  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres 
of  Jersey  land,  and  Stockton  had  a  large  farm  in  the 
South  which  was  a  financial  burden  to  him. 

''Well,  Stockton,"  said  Frost,  "I  have  found  a  way 
at  last  to  make  a  farm  stop  eating  up  money.  Per- 
haps it  will  help  you." 

Stockton  was  busy  writing,  but  at  this  bit  of  hopeful 
news  he  looked  up,  his  eyes  kindled,  he  dropped  his 
pen,  and  eagerly  said: 

"TeUme." 

And  looking  behind  him  to  see  that  the  way  was  clear, 
Frost  answered: 

"Pave  it  solid,  old  man." 

When  the  stories  of  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde  and 
Little  Lord  Fauntleroy  were,  made  into  plays,  Bok  was 
given  an  opportunity  for  an  entirely  different  kind  of 
publicity.  Both  plays  were  highly  successful;  they  ran 
for  weeks  in  succession,  and  each  evening  Bok  had  cir- 
culars of  the  books  in  every  seat  of  the  theatre;  he  had  a 
table  filled  with  the  books  in  the  foyer  of  each  theatre; 
and  he  bombarded  the  newspapers  with  stories  of  ]\Ir. 
Mansfield's  method  of  making  the  quick  change  from 
one  character  to  the  other  in  the  dual  role  of  the  Ste- 
venson play,  and  with  anecdotes  about  the  boy  Tomm\- 
Russell  in  Mrs.  Burnett's  play.  The  sale  of  the  books 
went  merrily  on,  and  kept  pace  with  the  success  of  the 
plays.  And  it  all  sharpened  the  initiative  of  the  young 
advertiser  and  developed  his  sense  for  publicity. 

One  day  while  waiting  in  the  anteroom  of  a  publish- 
ing house  to  see  a  member  of  the  firm,  he  picked  up  a 


ii8  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

book  and  began  to  read  it.  Since  he  had  to  wait  for 
nearly  an  hour,  he  had  read  a  large  part  of  the  volume 
when  he  was  at  last  admitted  to  the  private  office. 
When  his  business  was  finished,  Bok  asked  the  pub- 
lisher why  this  book  was  not  selling. 

"I  don't  know,"  replied  the  publisher.  "We  had 
great  hopes  for  it,  but  somehow  or  other  the  pubUc  has 
not  responded  to  it." 

"Are  you  sure  you  are  telling  the  public  about  it  in 
the  right  way?"  ventured  Bok. 

The  Scribner  advertising  had  by  this  time  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  publishing  world,  and  this  pubHsher 
was  entirely  ready  to  Ksten  to  a  suggestion  from  his 
youthful  caller. 

"I  wish  we  pubHshed  it,"  said  Bok.  "I  think  I  could 
make  it  a  go.    It's  all  in  the  book." 

"How  would  you  advertise  it?"  asked  the  publisher. 

Bok  promised  the  publisher  he  would  let  him  know. 
He  carried  with  him  a  copy  of  the  book,  wrote  some  ad- 
vertisements for  it,  prepared  an  attractive  "broadside" 
of  extracts,  to  which  the  book  easily  lent  itself,  wrote 
some  literary  notes  about  it,  and  sent  the  whole  collec- 
tion to  the  publisher.  Every  particle  of  "copy"  which 
Bok  had  prepared  was  used,  the  book  began  to  sell,  and 
within  three  months  it  was  the  most  discussed  book  of 
the  day. 

The  book  was  Edward  Bellamy's  Looking  Backward. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  CHANCES  FOR  SUCCESS 

Edward  Bok  does  not  now  remember  whether  the 
mental  picture  had  been  given  him,  or  whether  he  had 
conjured  it  up  for  himself;  but  he  certainly  was  pos- 
sessed of  the  idea,  as  are  so  many  young  men  entering 
business,  that  the  path  which  led  to  success  was  very 
difficult:  that  it  was  overfilled  with  a  jostling,  bustUng, 
panting  crowd,  each  eager  to  reach  the  goal;  and  all 
ready  to  dispute  every  step  that  a  young  man  should 
take;  and  that  favoritism  only  could  bring  one  to  the 
top. 

After  Bok  had  been  in  the  world  of  affairs,  he  wondered 
where  were  these  choked  avenues,  these  struggling 
masses,  these  competitors  for  every  inch  of  vantage. 
Then  he  gradually  discovered  that  they  did  not  exist. 

In  the  first  place,  he  found  every  avenue  leading  to 
success  wide  open  and  certainly  not  overpeopled.  He 
was  surprised  how  few  there  were  who  really  stood  in  a 
young  man's  way.  He  found  that  favoritism  was  not 
the  factor  that  he  had  been  led  to  suppose.  He  realized 
it  existed  in  a  few  isolated  cases,  but  to  these  every  one 
had  pointed  and  about  these  every  one  had  talked  until, 
in  the  public  mind,  they  had  multiplied  in  number  and 
assumed  a  proportion  that  the  facts  did  not  bear  out. 

Here  and  there  a  relative  ''played  a  favorite,"  but 
even  with  the  push  and  influence  beliind  him  "the  lucky 

iig 


I20  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

one,"  as  he  was  termed,  did  not  seem  to  make  progress, 
unless  he  had  merit.  It  was  not  long  before  Bok  dis- 
covered that  the  possession  of  sheer  merit  was  the  only 
real  factor  that  actually  counted  in  any  of  the  places 
where  he  had  been  employed  or  in  others  which  he  had 
watched;  that  business  was  so  constructed  and  conducted 
that  nothing  else,  in  the  face  of  competition,  could  act 
as  current  coin.  And  the  amazing  part  of  it  all  to  Bok 
was  how  Uttle  merit  there  was.  Nothing  astonished 
him  more  than  the  low  average  abihty  of  those  with 
whom  he  worked  or  came  into  contact. 

He  looked  at  the  top,  and  instead  of  finding  it  over- 
crowded, he  was  surprised  at  the  few  who  had  reached 
there;  the  top  fairly  begged  for  more  to  climb  its  heights. 

For  every  young  man,  earnest,  eager  to  serve,  will- 
ing to  do  more  than  he  was  paid  for,  he  found  ten  trying 
to  solve  the  problem  of  how  little  they  could  actually 
do  for  the  pay  received. 

It  interested  Bok  to  listen  to  the  talk  of  his  fellow- 
workers  during  luncheon  hours  and  at  all  other  times  out- 
side of  office  hours.  When  the  talk  did  turn  on  the 
business  with  which  they  were  concerned,  it  consisted 
almost  entirely  of  wages,  and  he  soon  found  that,  with 
scarcely  an  exception,  every  young  man  was  terribly 
underpaid,  and  that  his  employer  absolutely  failed  to 
appreciate  his  work.  It  was  interesting,  later,  when 
Bok  happened  to  get  the  angle  of  the  employer,  to  dis- 
cover that,  invariably,  these  same  lamenting  young  men 
were  those  who,  from  the  employer's  point  of  view,  were 
either  greatly  overpaid  or  so  entirely  worthless  as  to  be 
marked  for  early  decapitation. 


THE  CHANCES  FOR  SUCCESS  121 

Bok  felt  that  this  constant  thought  of  the  wages 
earned  or  deserved  was  putting  the  cart  before  the 
horse;  he  had  schooled  himself  into  the  belief  that  if  he 
did  his  work  well,  and  accomplished  more  than  was  ex- 
pected of  him,  the  question  of  wages  would  take  care 
of  itself.  But,  according  to  the  talk  on  every  side,  it 
was  he  who  had  the  cart  before  the  horse.  Bok  had  not 
only  tried  always  to  fill  the  particular  job  set  for  him, 
but  had  made  it  a  rule  at  the  same  time  to  study  the 
position  just  ahead,  to  see  what  it  was  like,  what  it 
demanded,  and  then,  as  the  opportunity  presented  it- 
self, do  a  part  of  that  job  in  addition  to  his  own.  As 
a  stenographer,  he  tried  always  to  clear  off  the  day's 
work  before  he  closed  his  desk.  This  was  not  always 
possible,  but  he  kept  it  before  him  as  a  rule  to  be 
followed  rather  than  violated. 

One  morning  Bok's  employer  happened  to  come  to  the 
office  earlier  than  usual,  to  find  the  letters  he  had  dic- 
tated late  in  the  afternoon  before  lying  on  his  desk 
ready  to  be  signed. 

"These  are  the  letters  I  gave  you  late  yesterday  after- 
noon, are  they  not?"  asked  the  employer. 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Must  have  started  early  this  morning,  didn't  you?" 

"No,  sir,"  answered  Bok.  "I  wrote  them  out  last 
evening  before  I  left." 

"Like  to  get  your  notes  written  out  before  they  get 
stale?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Good  idea,"  said  the  employer. 

"Yes,  sir,"  answered  Bok,  "and  I  think  it  is  even  a 


122    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

better  idea  to  get  a  day's  work  ofif  before  I  take  my  apron 
off." 

"Well  said,"  answered  the  employer,  and  the  follow- 
ing payday  Bok  found  an  increase  in  his  weekly  en- 
velope. 

It  is  only  fair,  however,  to  add  here,  parenthetically, 
that  it  is  neither  just  nor  considerate  to  a  conscientious 
stenographer  for  an  employer  to  delay  his  dictation 
until  the  end  of  the  day's  work,  when,  merely  by  judi- 
cious management  of  his  affairs  and  time,  he  can  give  his 
dictation  directly  after  opening  his  morning  mail.  There 
are  two  sides  to  every  question;  but  sometimes  the  side 
of  the  stenographer  is  not  kept  in  mind  by  the  em- 
ployer. 

Bok  found  it  a  uniform  rule  among  his  fellow- 
workers  to  do  exactly  the  opposite  to  his  own  idea;  there 
was  an  astonishing  unanimity  in  working  by  the  clock; 
where  the  hour  of  closing  was  five  o'clock  the  prepara- 
tions began  five  minutes  before,  with  the  hat  and  over- 
coat over  the  back  of  the  chair  ready  for  the  stroke  of 
the  hour.  This  concert  of  action  was  curiously  uni- 
versal, no  "overtime"  was  ever  to  be  thought  of,  and, 
as  occasionally  happened  when  the  work  did  go  over 
the  hour,  it  was  not,  to  use  the  mildest  term,  done  with 
care,  neatness,  or  accuracy;  it  was,  to  use  a  current 
phrase,  "slammed  off."  Every  moment  beyond  five 
o'clock  in  which  the  worker  was  asked  to  do  anything 
was  by  just  so  much  an  imposition  on  the  part  of  the 
employer,  and  so  far  as  it  could  be  safely  shown,  this 
impression  was  gotten  over  to  him. 

There  was  an    entire  imwillingness    to  let  business 


THE  CHANCES  FOR  SUCCESS  123 

interfere  with  any  anticipated  pleasure  or  personal  en- 
gagement. The  office  was  all  right  between  nine  and 
five;  one  had  to  be  there  to  earn  a  living;  but  after 
five,  it  was  not  to  be  thought  of  for  one  moment.  The 
elevators  which  ran  on  the  stroke  of  five  were  never 
large  enough  to  hold  the  throng  which  besieged  them. 

The  talk  during  lunch  hour  rarely,  if  ever,  turned 
toward  business,  except  as  said  before,  when  it  dealt 
with  underpaid  services.  In  the  spring  and  summer  it 
was  invariably  of  baseball,  and  scores  of  young  men 
knew  the  batting  averages  of  the  different  players  and 
the  standing  of  the  clubs  with  far  greater  accuracy  than 
they  knew  the  standing  or  the  discounts  of  the  customers 
of  their  employers.  In  the  winter  the  talk  was  all  of 
dancing,  boxing,  or  plays. 

It  soon  became  evident  to  Bok  why  scarcely  five  out 
of  every  hundred  of  the  young  men  whom  he  knew  made 
any  business  progress.  They  were  not  interested;  it 
was  a  case  of  a  day's  work  and  a  day's  pay;  it  was  not 
a  question  of  how  much  one  could  do  but  how  little  one 
could  get  away  with.  The  thought  of  how  well  one  might 
do  a  given  thing  never  seemed  to  occur  to  the  average 
mind. 

"Oh,  what  do  you  care?"  was  the  favorite  expres- 
sion. "The  boss  won't  notice  it  if  you  break  your  back 
over  his  work;  you  won't  get  any  more  pay." 

And  there  the  subject  was  dismissed,  and  thoroughly 
dismissed,  too. 

Eventually,  then,  Bok  learned  that  the  path  that  led 
to  success  was  wide  open:  the  competition  was  negligi- 
ble.    There  was  no  jostling.     In  fact,  travel  on  it  was 


124   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

just  a  trifle  lonely.  One's  fellow-travellers  were  excel- 
lent company,  but  they  were  few!  It  was  one  of 
Edward  Bok's  greatest  surprises,  but  it  was  also  one  of 
his  greatest  stimulants.  To  go  where  others  could  not 
go,  or  were  loath  to  go,  where  at  least  they  were  not, 
had  a  tang  that  savored  of  the  freshest  kind  of  adven- 
ture. And  the  way  was  so  simple,  so  much  simpler,  in 
fact,  than  its  avoidance,  which  called  for  so  much  argu- 
ment, explanation,  and  discussion.  One  had  merely 
to  do  aU  that  one  could  do,  a  little  more  than  one  was 
asked  or  expected  to  do,  and  immediately  one's  head 
rose  above  the  crowd  and  one  was  in  an  employer's 
eye — where  it  is  always  so  satisfying  for  an  employee 
to  be !  And  as  so  few  heads  Ufted  themselves  above  the 
many,  there  was  never  any  danger  that  they  would 
not  be  seen. 

Of  course,  Edward  Bok  had  to  prove  to  himself  that 
his  conception  of  conditions  was  right.  He  felt  in- 
stinctively that  it  was,  however,  and  with  this  stimulus 
he  bucked  the  Hne  hard.  When  others  played,  he 
worked,  fully  convinced  that  his  play-time  would  come 
later.  Where  others  shirked,  he  assumed.  Where 
others  lagged,  he  accelerated  his  pace.  Where  others 
were  indifferent  to  things  around  them,  he  observed  and 
put  away  the  results  for  possible  use  later.  He  did  not 
make  of  himself  a  pack-horse;  what  he  undertook  he 
did  from  interest  in  it,  and  that  made  it  a  pleasure  to 
him  when  to  others  it  was  a  burden.  He  instinctively 
reasoned  it  out  that  an  unpleasant  task  is  never  accom- 
pHshed  by  stepping  aside  from  it,  but  that,  unerringly, 
it  will  return  later  to  be  met  and  done. 


THE  CHANCES  FOR  SUCCESS  125 

Obstacles,  to  Edward  Bok,  soon  became  merely  diffi- 
culties to  be  overcome,  and  he  trusted  to  his  instinct 
to  show  him  the  best  way  to  overcome  them.  He  soon 
learned  that  the  hardest  kind  of  work  was  back  of  every 
success;  that  nothing  in  the  world  of  business  just  hap- 
pened, but  that  everything  was  brought  about,  and  only 
in  one  way — by  a  willingness  of  spirit  and  a  determina- 
tion to  carry  through.  He  soon  exploded  for  himself 
the  misleading  and  comfortable  theory  of  luck :  the  only 
lucky  people,  he  found,  were  those  who  worked  hard. 
To  them,  luck  came  in  the  shape  of  what  they  had  earned. 
There  were  exceptions  here  and  there,  as  there  are  to 
every  rule;  but  the  majority  of  these,  he  soon  found, 
were  more  in  the  seeming  than  in  the  reality.  Gener- 
ally speaking — and  of  course  to  this  rule  there  are  like- 
wise exceptions,  or  as  the  Frenchman  said,  ''All  gen- 
eralizations are  false,  including  this  one" — a  man  got 
in  this  world  about  what  he  worked  for. 

And  that  became,  for  himself,  the  rule  of  Edward 
Bok's  life. 


V  CHAPTER  XII 

BAPTISM  UNDER  FIRE 

The  personnel  of  the  Scribner  house  was  very  youth- 
ful from  the  members  of  the  firm  clear  down  the  line. 
It  was  veritably  a  house  of  young  men. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  Boston  publisher,  sedate  and 
fairly  elderly,  who  came  to  the  Scribner  house  to  trans- 
act business  with  several  of  its  departments.  One  of 
his  errands  concerning  itself  with  advertising,  he  was 
introduced  to  Bok,  who  was  then  twenty-four.  Look- 
ing the  youth  over,  he  transacted  his  business  as  well 
as  he  felt  it  could  be  transacted  with  a  manager  of  such 
tender  years,  and  then  sought  the  head  of  the  educational 
department:  this  brought  him  to  another  young  man 
of  twenty-four. 

With  his  yearnings  for  some  one  more  advanced  in 
years  full  upon  him,  the  visitor  now  inquired  for  the 
business  manager  of  the  new  magazine,  only  to  find  a 
man  of  twenty-six.  His  next  introduction  was  to  the 
head  of  the  out-of-town  business  department,  who  was 
twenty-seven. 

At  this  point  the  Boston  man  asked  to  see  Mr.  Scrib- 
ner. This  disclosed  to  him  Mr.  Arthur  H.  Scribner, 
the  junior  partner,  who  owned  to  twenty-eight  summers. 
Mustering  courage  to  ask  faintly  for  Mr.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner himself,  he  finally  brought  up  in  that  gentleman's 

ofl6ce  only  to  meet  a  man  just  turning  thirty-three ! 

126 


BAPTISM   UNDER  FIRE  127 

"This  is  a  young-looking  crowd,"  said  Mr.  Scribner 
one  day,  looking  over  his  young  men.  And  his  eye 
rested  on  Bok.  "Particularly  you,  Bok.  Doubleday 
looks  his  years  better  than  you  do,  for  at  least  he  has  a 
moustache."  Then,  contemplatively:  "You  raise  a 
moustache,  Bok,  and  I'll  raise  your  salary." 

This  appealed  to  Bok  very  strongly,  and  within  a 
month  he  pointed  out  the  result  to  his  employer. 
"Stand  in  the  hght  here,"  said  Mr.  Scribner.  "Well, 
yes,"  he  concluded  dubiously,  "it's  there — something  at 
least.     All  right;  I'll  keep  my  part  of  the  bargain." 

He  did.  But  the  next  day  he  was  nonplussed  to  see 
that  the  moustache  had  disappeared  from  the  lip  of  his 
youthful  advertising  manager.  "Couldn't  quite  stand 
it,  Mr.  Scribner,"  was  the  explanation.  "Besides,  you 
didn't  say  I  should  keep  it:  you  merely  said  to  raise  it." 

But  the  increase  did  not  follow  the  moustache.  To 
Bok's  great  relief,  it  stuck  ! 

This  youthful  personnel,  while  it  made  for  esprit  de 
corps,  had  also  its  disadvantages.  One  day  as  Bok 
was  going  out  to  lunch,  he  found  a  small-statured  man, 
rather  plainly  dressed,  wandering  around  the  retail 
department,  hoping  for  a  salesman  to  wait  on  him.  The 
young  salesman  on  duty,  full  of  inexperience,  had  a 
ready  smile  and  quick  service  ever  ready  for  "carriage 
trade,"  as  he  called  it;  but  this  particular  customer  had 
come  afoot,  and  this,  together  with  his  plainness  of 
dress,  did  not  impress  the  young  salesman.  His  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  wandering  customer,  and  it  was 
suggested  that  he  find  out  what  was  wanted.  WTien 
Bok  returned  from  lunch,   the  young  salesman,  who, 


128   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

with  a  beaming  smile,  had  just  most  ceremoniously 
bowed  the  plainly  dressed  little  customer  out  of  the 
street-door,  said:  "You  certainly  struck  it  rich  that 
time  when  you  suggested  my  waiting  on  that  little  man ! 
Such  an  order!  Been  here  ever  since.  Did  you  know 
who  it  was?" 

"No,"  returned  Bok.     "Who  was  it?" 

"Andrew  Carnegie,"  beamed  the  salesman. 

Another  youthful  clerk  in  the  Scribner  retail  book- 
store, unconscious  of  the  customer's  identity,  waited  one 
day  on  the  wife  of  Mark  Twain. 

Mrs.  Clemens  asked  the  young  salesman  for  a  copy  of 
Taine's  Ancient  Regime. 

"Beg  pardon,"  said  the  clerk,  "what  book  did  you 
say?" 

Mrs.  Clemens  repeated  the  author  and  title  of  the 
book. 

Going  to  the  rear  of  the  store,  the  clerk  soon  returned, 
only  to  inquire:  "May  I  ask  you  to  repeat  the  name  of 
the  author?" 

"Taine,  T-a-i-n-e,"  replied  Mrs.  Clemens. 

Then  did  the  youthfulness  of  the  salesman  assert 
itself.  Assuming  an  air  of  superior  knowledge,  and  look- 
ing at  the  customer  with  an  air  of  sympathy,  he  cor- 
rected Mrs.  Clemens: 

"Pardon  me,  madam,  but  you  have  the  name  a  trifle 
wrong.     You  mean  Twain — not  Taine." 

With  so  many  young  men  of  the  same  age,  there  was 
a  natural  sense  of  team-work  and  a  spirit  of  comrade- 
ship that  made  for  successful  co-operation.  This  spirit 
extended  outside  of  business  hours.    At  luncheon  there 


BAPTISM  UNDER   FIRE  129 

was  a  Scribner  table  in  a  neighboring  restaurant,  and 
evenings  saw  the  Scribner  department  heads  mingling 
as  friends.  It  was  a  group  of  young  men  who  under- 
stood and  liked  each  other,  with  the  natural  result  that 
business  went  easier  and  better  because  of  it. 

But  Bok  did  not  have  much  time  for  evening  enjoy- 
ment, since  his  outside  interests  had  grown  and  pros- 
pered and  they  kept  him  busy.  His  syndicate  was  reg- 
ularly supplying  over  a  hundred  newspapers:  his  liter- 
ary letter  had  become  an  established  feature  in  thirty 
different  newspapers. 

Of  course,  his  opportunities  for  making  this  letter 
interesting  were  unusual.  Owing  to  his  Scribner  con- 
nection, however,  he  had  taken  his  name  from  the  letter 
and  signed  that  of  his  brother.  He  had,  also,  constantly 
to  discriminate  between  the  information  that  he  could 
publish  without  violation  of  confidence  and  that  which 
he  felt  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  print.  This  gave  him 
excellent  experience;  for  the  most  vital  of  all  essentials 
in  the  journalist  is  the  ability  unerringly  to  decide  what 
to  print  and  what  to  regard  as  confidential. 

Of  course,  the  best  things  that  came  to  him  he  could 
not  print.  Whenever  there  was  a  question,  he  gave  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt  to  the  confidential  relation  in  which 
his  position  placed  him  with  authors;  and  his  Dutch 
caution,  although  it  deprived  him  of  many  a  toothsome 
morsel  for  his  letter,  soon  became  known  to  his  confreres, 
and  was  a  large  asset  when,  as  an  editor,  he  had  to  fol- 
low the  golden  rule  of  editorship  that  teaches  one  to 
keep  the  ears  open  but  the  mouth  shut. 

This  Alpha  and  Omega  of  all  the  commandments  in 


I30    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  editorial  creed  some  editors  learn  by  sorrowful  ex- 
perience. Bok  was,  again,  fortunate  in  learning  it  under 
the  most  friendly  auspices.  He  continued  to  work 
without  sparing  himself,  but  his  star  remained  in  the 
ascendency.  Just  how  far  a  man's  own  efforts  and 
standards  keep  a  friendly  star  centred  over  his  head  is 
a  question.  But  Edward  Bok  has  always  felt  that  he 
was  materially  helped  by  fortuitous  conditions  not  of 
his  own  creation  or  choice. 

He  was  now  to  receive  his  first  pubUc  baptism  of  fire. 
He  had  published  a  symposium,  through  his  newspaper 
syndicate,  discussing  the  question,  "Should  Clergymen 
Smoke?"  He  had  induced  all  the  prominent  clergy- 
men in  the  country  to  contribute  their  views,  and  so  dis- 
tinguished was  the  list  that  the  article  created  wide- 
spread attention. 

One  of  the  contributors  was  the  Reverend  Richard  S. 
Storrs,  D.D.,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  Brook- 
l}Ti's  coterie  of  clergy  of  that  day.  A  few  days  after 
the  publication  of  the  article,  Bok  was  astounded  to 
read  in  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  a  sensational  article,  with 
large  headlines,  in  which  Doctor  Storrs  repudiated  his 
contribution  to  the  symposium,  declared  that  he  had 
never  written  or  signed  such  a  statement,  and  accused 
Edward  Bok  of  forgery. 

Coming  from  a  man  of  Doctor  Storrs's  prominence, 
the  accusation  was,  of  course,  a  serious  one.  Bok 
realized  this  at  once.  He  foresaw  the  damage  it  might 
work  to  the  reputation  of  a  young  man  trying  to  cHmb 
the  ladder  of  success,  and  wondered  why  Doctor  Storrs 
had  seen  fit  to  accuse  him  in  this  public  manner  instead 


BAPTISM   UNDER  FIRE  131 

of  calling  upon  him  for  a  personal  explanation.  He 
thought  perhaps  he  might  find  such  a  letter  from  Doctor 
Storrs  when  he  reached  home,  but  instead  he  met  a 
small  corps  of  reporters  from  the  Brooklyn  and  New 
York  newspapers.  He  told  them  frankly  that  no  one 
was  more  surprised  at  the  accusation  than  he,  but  that 
the  original  contributions  were  in  the  New  York  office 
of  the  syndicate,  and  he  could  not  corroborate  his  word 
until  he  had  looked  into  the  papers  and  found  Doctor 
Storrs's  contribution. 

That  evening  Bok  got  at  the  papers  in  the  case, 
and  found  out  that,  technically,  Doctor  Storrs  was 
right:  he  had  not  written  or  signed  such  a  statement. 
The  compiler  of  the  symposium,  the  editor  of  one  of 
New  York's  leading  evening  papers  whom  Bok  had  em- 
ployed, had  found  Doctor  Storrs's  declaration  in  favor 
of  a  clergyman's  use  of  tobacco  in  an  address  made  some 
time  before,  had  extracted  it  and  incorporated  it  into 
the  symposium.  It  was,  therefore,  Doctor  Storrs's 
opinion  on  the  subject,  but  not  written  for  the  occasion 
for  which  it  was  used.  Bok  felt  that  his  editor  had  led 
him  into  an  indiscretion.  Yet  the  sentiments  were 
those  of  the  writer  whose  name  was  attached  to  them, 
so  that  the  act  was  not  one  of  forgery.  The  editor  ex- 
plained that  he  had  sent  the  extract  to  Doctor  Storrs, 
who  had  not  returned  it,  and  he  had  taken  silence  to 
mean  consent  to  the  use  of  the  material. 

Bok  decided  to  say  nothing  until  he  heard  from  Doc- 
tor Storrs  personally,  and  so  told  the  newspapers.  But 
the  clergyman  did  not  stop  his  attack.  Of  course,  the 
newspapers  egged  him  on  and  extracted  from  him  the 


132   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

further  accusation  that  Bok's  silence  proved  his  guilt. 
Bok  now  took  the  case  to  Mr.  Beecher,  and  asked  his 
advice. 

"Well,  Edward,  you  are  right  and  you  are  wrong," 
said  Mr.  Beecher.  ''And  so  is  Storrs,  of  course.  It  is 
beneath  him  to  do  what  he  has  done.  Storrs  and  I  are 
not  good  friends,  as  you  know,  and  so  I  cannot  go  to 
him  and  ask  him  the  reason  of  his  disclaimer.  Other- 
wise I  would.  Of  course,  he  may  have  forgotten  his 
remarks:  that  is  always  possible  in  a  busy  man's  life. 
He  may  not  have  received  the  letter  enclosing  them. 
That  is  likewise  possible.  But  I  have  a  feeling  that 
Storrs  has  some  reason  for  wishing  to  repudiate  his  views 
on  this  subject  just  at  this  time.  What  it  is  I  do  not, 
of  course,  know,  but  his  vehemence  makes  me  think 
so.  I  think  I  should  let  him  have  his  rein.  Keep  you 
quiet.  It  may  damage  you  a  little  here  and  there,  but 
in  the  end  it  won't  harm  you.  In  the  main  point,  you 
are  right.  You  are  not  a  forger.  The  sentiments  are 
his  and  he  uttered  them,  and  he  should  stand  by  them. 
He  threatens  to  bring  you  into  court,  I  see  from  to-day's 
paper.     Wait  until  he  does  so." 

Bok,  chancing  to  meet  Doctor  Talmage,  told  him  Mr. 
Beecher's  advice,  and  he  endorsed  it.  ''Remember, 
boy,"  said  Doctor  Talmage,  "silence  is  never  so  golden 
as  when  you  are  under  fire.  I  know,  for  I  have  been 
there,  as  you  know,  more  than  once.  Keep  quiet;  and 
always  believe  this :  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  common 
sense  abroad  in  the  world,  and  a  man  is  always  safe  in 
trusting  it  to  do  him  justice." 

They  were  not  pleasant  and  easy  days  for  Bok,  for 


BAPTISM  UNDER  FIRE  133 

Doctor  Storrs  kept  up  the  din  for  several  days.  Bok 
waited  for  the  word  to  appear  in  court.  But  this 
never  came,  and  the  matter  soon  died  down  and  out. 
And,  although  Bok  met  the  clergyman  several  times 
afterward  in  the  years  that  followed,  no  reference  was 
ever  made  by  him  to  the  incident. 

But  Edward  Bok  had  learned  a  valuable  lesson  of 
silence  under  fire — an  experience  that  was  to  stand  him 
in  good  stead  when  he  was  again  publicly  attacked  not 
long  afterward. 

This  occurred  in  connection  with  a  notable  anniversary 
celebration  in  honor  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  in  which 
the  entire  city  of  Brooklyn  was  to  participate.  It  was  to 
mark  a  mile-stone  in  Mr.  Beecher's  ministry  and  in  his 
pastorate  of  Plymouth  Church.  Bok  planned  a  world- 
wide tribute  to  the  famed  clergyman:  he  would  get  the 
most  distinguished  men  and  women  of  this  and  other 
countries  to  express  their  esteem  for  the  Plymouth  pas- 
tor in  written  congratulations,  and  he  would  bind  these 
into  a  volume  for  presentation  to  Mr.  Beecher  on  the 
occasion.  He  consulted  members  of  the  Beecher  family, 
and,  with  their  acquiescence,  began  to  assemble  the 
material.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  the  work  when 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  passed  away.  Bok  felt  that  the 
tributes  already  received  were  too  wonderful  to  be  lost 
to  the  world,  and,  after  again  consulting  Mrs.  Beecher 
and  her  children,  he  determined  to  finish  the  collection 
and  publish  it  as  a  memorial  for  private  distribution. 
After  a  prodigious  correspondence,  the  work  was  at 
last  completed;  and  in  June,  1887,  the  volume  was 
published,  in  a  limited  edition  of  five  hundred  copies. 


134  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Bok  distributed  copies  of  the  volume  to  the  members 
of  Mr.  Beecher's  family,  he  had  orders  from  Mr.  Beech- 
er's  friends,  one  hundred  copies  were  offered  to  the 
American  public  and  one  hundred  copies  were  issued  in 
an  English  edition. 

With  such  a  figure  to  whom  to  do  honor,  the  con- 
tributors, of  course,  included  the  foremost  men  and 
women  of  the  time.  GroVer  Cleveland  was  then  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  and  his  tribute  was  a  notable 
one.  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  Pasteur, 
Canon  Farrar,  Bartholdi,  Salvini,  and  a  score  of  others 
represented  English  and  European  opinion.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  T.  De  Witt 
Talmage,  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  Charles  Dudley  Warner, 
General  Sherman,  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Andrew  Carnegie, 
Edwin  Booth,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes — there  was  scarcely 
a  leader  of  thought  and  of  action  of  that  day  unrepre- 
sented. The  edition  was,  of  course,  quickly  exhausted; 
and  when  to-day  a  copy  occasionally  appears  at  an  auc- 
tion sale,  it  is  sold  at  a  high  price. 

The  newspapers  gave  very  large  space  to  the  dis- 
tinguished memorial,  and  this  fact  angered  a  journalist, 
Joseph  Howard,  Junior,  a  man  at  one  time  close  to  Mr. 
Beecher,  who  had  befriended  him.  Howard  had  planned 
to  be  the  first  in  the  field  with  a  hastily  prepared  bi- 
ography of  the  great  preacher,  and  he  felt  that  Bok  had 
forestalled  him.  Forthwith,  he  launched  a  vicious 
attack  on  the  compiler  of  the  memorial,  accusing  him 
of  "making  money  out  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  dead 
body"  and  of  ''seriously  offending  the  family  of  Mr. 
Beecher,  who  had  had  no  say  in  the  memorial,  which 


BAPTISM  UNDER  FIRE  135 

was  therefore  without  authority,  and  hence  extremely 
distasteful  to  all." 

Howard  had  convinced  a  number  of  editors  of  the  jus- 
tice of  his  position,  and  so  he  secured  a  wide  publication 
for  his  attack.  For  the  second  time,  Edward  Bok  was 
under  fire,  and  remembering  his  action  on  the  previous 
occasion,  he  again  remained  silent,  and  again  the  argu- 
ment was  put  forth  that  his  silence  impHed  guilt.  But 
Mrs.  Beecher  and  members  of  the  Beecher  family  did  not 
observe  silence, and  quicklyproved  that  not  only  had  Bok 
compiled  the  memorial  as  a  labor  of  love  and  had  lost 
money  on  it,  but  that  he  had  the  full  consent  of  the 
family  in  its  preparation. 

When,  shortly  afterward,  Howard's  hastily  compiled 
"biography"  of  Mr.  Beecher  appeared,  a  reporter  asked 
Mrs.  Beecher  whether  she  and  her  family  had  found 
it  accurate. 

''Accurate,  my  child,"  said  Mrs.  Beecher.  *'Why, 
it  is  so  accurate  in  its  absolute  falsity  that  neither 
I  nor  the  boys  can  find  one  fact  or  date  given  correctly, 
although  we  have  studied  it  for  two  days.  Even  the 
year  of  Mr.  Beecher's  birth  is  wrong,  and  that  is  the 
smallest  error!" 

Edward  Bok  little  dreamed  that  these  two  experiences 
with  public  criticism  were  to  serve  him  as  a  foretaste  of 
future  attacks  when  he  would  get  the  benefit  of  hundreds 
of  pencils  especially  sharpened  for  him. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
PUBLISHING  INCIDENTS  AND  ANECDOTES 

One  evening  some  literary  men  were  dining  together 
previous  to  going  to  a  private  house  where  a  number  of 
authors  were  to  give  readings  from  their  books.  At  the 
table  the  talk  turned  on  the  carelessness  with  which  the 
public  reads  books.  Richard  Harding  Davis,  one  of 
the  party,  contended  that  the  public  read  more  carefully 
than  the  others  believed.  It  was  just  at  the  time  when 
Du  Manner's  Trilby  was  in  every  one's  hands. 

"Don't  you  beheve  it,"  said  one  of  the  diners.  "I'll 
warrant  you  could  take  a  portion  of  some  weU-known 
story  to-night  and  palm  it  ofif  on  most  of  your  listeners 
as  new  stuff." 

"Done,"  said  Davis.  "Come  along,  and  I'll  prove 
you  wrong." 

The  reading  was  to  be  at  the  house  of  John  Kendrick 
Bangs  at  Yonkers.  When  Davis's  "turn"  in  the  pro- 
gramme came,  he  announced  that  he  would  read  a  por- 
tion from  an  unpublished  story  written  by  himself. 
Immediately  there  was  a  flutter  in  the  audience,  par- 
ticularly among  the  younger  element. 

Pulling  a  roll  of  manuscript  out  of  his  pocket,  Davis 
began : 

"It  was  a  fine,  sunny,  showery  day  in  April.    The 

big  studio  window " 

136 


PUBLISHING  INCIDENTS  AND  ANECDOTES     137 

He  got  no  farther.  Almost  the  entire  audience  broke 
into  a  shout  of  laughter  and  applause.  Davis  had  read 
thirteen  of  the  opening  words  of  Trilby. 

All  publishing  houses  employ  "readers"  outside  of 
those  in  their  own  offices  for  the  reading  of  manuscripts 
on  special  subjects.  One  of  these  "outside  readers"  was 
given  a  manuscript  for  criticism.  He  took  it  home  and 
began  its  reading.  He  had  finished  only  a  hundred 
pages  or  so  when,  by  a  curious  coincidence,  the  card  of 
the  author  of  the  manuscript  was  brought  to  the 
"reader."     The  men  were  close  friends. 

Hastily  gathering  up  the  manuscript,  the  critic  shoved 
the  work  into  a  drawer  of  his  desk,  and  asked  that  his 
friend  be  shown  in. 

The  evening  was  passed  in  conversation;  as  the 
visitor  rose  to  leave,  his  host,  rising  also  and  seating 
himself  on  his  desk,  asked: 

"What  have  you  been  doing  lately?  Haven't  seen 
much  of  you." 

"No,"  said  the  friend.  "It  may  interest  you  to  know 
that  I  have  been  turning  to  literary  work,  and  have 
just  completed  what  I  consider  to  be  an  important  book." 

"Really?"  commented  the  "reader." 

"Yes,"  went  on  his  friend.  "I  submitted  it  a  few  days 
ago  to  one  of  the  big  publishing  houses.  But,  great 
Scott,  you  can  never  teU  what  these  publishers  will  do 
with  a  thing  of  that  sort.  They  give  their  manuscripts 
to  all  kinds  of  fools  to  read.  I  suppose,  by  this  time, 
some  idiot,  who  doesn't  know  a  thing  of  the  subject 
about  which  I  have  written,  is  sitting  on  my  manu- 
script." 


138   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Mechanically,  the  "reader"  looked  at  the  desk  upon 
which  he  was  sitting,  thought  of  the  manuscript  lying 
in  the  drawer  directly  under  him,  and  said : 

"Yes,  that  may  be.    Quite  likely,  in  fact." 

Of  no  novel  was  the  secret  of  the  authorship  ever  so 
well  kept  as  was  that  of  The  Breadwinners,  which, 
published  anonymously  in  1883,  was  the  talk  of  literary 
circles  for  a  long  time,  and  speculation  as  to  its  author- 
ship was  renewed  in  the  newspapers  for  years  after- 
ward. Bok  wanted  very  much  to  find  out  the  author's 
name  so  that  he  could  announce  it  in  his  literary  letter. 
He  had  his  suspicions,  but  they  were  not  well  founded 
until  an  amusing  httle  incident  occurred  which  curiously 
revealed  the  secret  to  him. 

Bok  was  waiting  to  see  one  of  the  members  of  a  pub- 
lishing firm  when  a  well-known  English  pubHsher, 
visiting  in  America,  was  being  escorted  out  of  the  office, 
the  conversation  continuing  as  the  two  gentlemen  walked 
through  the  outer  rooms.  "My  chief  reason,"  said  the 
English  publisher,  as  he  stopped  at  the  end  of  the 
outer  office  where  Bok  was  sitting,  "for  hesitating  at  all 
about  taking  an  English  set  of  plates  of  the  novel  you 
speak  of  is  because  it  is  of  anonymous  authorship,  a 
custom  of  writing  w^hich  has  grown  out  of  all  decent  pro- 
portions in  your  country  since  the  issue  of  that  stupid 
book.  The  Breadwinners." 

As  these  last  words  were  spoken,  a  man  seated  at  a 
desk  directly  behind  the  speaker  looked  up,  smiled,  and 
resumed  reading  a  document  which  he  had  dropped  in 
to  sign.  A  smile  also  spread  over  the  countenance  of 
the  American  pubHsher  as  he  furtively  glanced  over  the 


PUBLISHING  INCIDENTS  AND  ANECDOTES     139 

shoulder  of  the  English  visitor  and  caught  the  eye  of 
the  smiling  man  at  the  desk. 

Bok  saw  the  little  comedy,  realized  at  once  that  he 
'had  discovered  the  author  of  The  Breadwinners,  and 
stated  to  the  pubhsher  that  he  intended  to  use  the 
incident  in  his  literary  letter.  But  it  proved  to  be  one 
of  those  heart-rending  instances  of  a  delicious  morsel 
of  news  that  must  be  withheld  from  the  journalist's 
use.  The  publisher  acknowledged  that  Bok  had  hap- 
pened upon  the  true  authorship,  but  placed  him  upon  his 
honor  to  make  no  use  of  the  incident.  And  Bok  learned 
again  the  vital  journahstic  lesson  that  there  are  a  great 
many  things  in  the  world  that  the  journalist  knows  and 
yet  cannot  write  about.  He  would  have  been  years  in 
advance  of  the  announcement  finally  made  that  John 
Hay  wrote  the  novel. 

At  another  time,  while  waiting,  Bok  had  an  experience 
which,  while  interesting,  was  saddening  instead  of  amus- 
ing. He  was  sitting  in  Mark  Twain's  sitting-room  in 
his  home  in  Hartford  waiting  for  the  humorist  to  re- 
turn from  a  walk.  Suddenly  sounds  of  devotional  sing- 
ing came  in  through  the  open  window  from  the  direc- 
tion of  the  outer  conservatory.  The  singing  was  low, 
yet  the  sad  tremor  in  the  voice  seemed  to  give  it  special 
carrying  power. 

"You  have  quite  a  devotional  servant,"  Bok  said  to 
a  maid  who  was  dusting  the  room. 

"Oh,  that  is  not  a  servant  who  is  singing,  sir,"  was  the 
answer.  "You  can  step  to  this  window  and  see  for 
yourself.'* 

Bok  did  so,  and  there,  sitting  alone  on  one  of  the 


I40  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

rustic  benches  in  the  flower-house,  was  a  small,  elderly 
woman.  Keeping  time  with  the  first  finger  of  her  right 
hand,  as  if  with  a  baton,  she  was  shghtly  swaying  her 
frail  body  as  she  sang,  softly  yet  sweetly,  Charles  Wes- 
ley's hymn,  "Jesus,  Lover  of  My  Soul,"  and  Sarah 
Flower  Adams's  "Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee." 

But  the  singer  was  not  a  servant.  It  was  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe ! 

On  another  visit  to  Hartford,  shortly  afterward, 
Bok  was  just  turning  into  Forrest  Street  when  a  little 
old  woman  came  shambling  along  toward  him,  uncon- 
scious, apparently,  of  people  or  surroundings.  In  her 
hand  she  carried  a  small  tree-switch.  Bok  did  not 
notice  her  until  just  as  he  had  passed  her  he  heard 
her  calling  to  him:  "Young  man,  young  man."  Bok 
retraced  his  steps,  and  then  the  old  lady  said:  "Young 
man,  you  have  been  leaning  against  something  white," 
and  taking  her  tree-switch  she  whipped  some  waU  dust 
from  the  sleeve  of  Bok's  coat.  It  was  not  until  that 
moment  that  Bok  recognized  in  his  self-appointed 
"brush"  no  less  a  personage  than  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe. 

"This  is  Mrs.  Stowe,  is  it  not?  "  he  asked,  after  tender- 
ing his  thanks  to  her. 

Those  blue  eyes  looked  strangely  into  his  as  she  an- 
swered : 

"That  is  my  name,  young  man.  I  live  on  this  street. 
Are  you  going  to  have  me  arrested  for  stopping  you?" 
with  which  she  gathered  up  her  skirts  and  quickly  ran 
away,  looking  furtively  over  her  shoulder  at  the  amazed 
young  man,  sorrowfully  watching  the  running  figure ! 

Speaking  of  Mrs.  Stowe  brings  to  mind  an  unscrupu- 


PUBLISHING  INCIDENTS  AND  ANECDOTES     141 

lous  and  yet  ingenious  trick  just  about  this  time  played 
by  a  young  man  attached  to  one  of  the  New  York  pub- 
Hshing  houses.  One  evening  at  dinner  this  chap  hap- 
pened to  be  in  a  bookish  company  when  the  talk  turned 
to  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Southern  negro  for  an  illus- 
trated Bible.  The  young  pubhshing  clerk  listened  in- 
tently, and  next  day  he  went  to  a  Bible  publishing  house 
in  New  York  which  issued  a  Bible  gorgeous  with  pic- 
tures and  entered  into  an  arrangement  with  the  pro- 
prietors whereby  he  should  have  the  Southern  territory. 
He  resigned  his  position,  and  within  a  week  he  was  in 
the  South.  He  made  arrangements  with  an  artist 
friend  to  make  a  change  in  each  copy  of  the  Bible  which 
he  contracted  for.  The  angels  pictured  therein  were 
white  in  color.  He  had  these  made  black,  so  he  could 
show  that  there  were  black  angels  as  well  as  white  ones. 
The  Bibles  cost  him  just  eighty  cents  apiece.  He  went 
about  the  South  and  offered  the  Bibles  to  the  astonished 
and  open-mouthed  negroes  for  eight  dollars  each,  two 
dollars  and  a  half  down  and  the  rest  in  monthly  pay- 
ments. His  sales  were  enormous.  Then  he  went  his 
rounds  all  over  again  and  offered  to  close  out  the  re- 
maining five  dollars  and  a  half  due  him  by  a  final  pay- 
ment of  two  dollars  and  a  half  each.  In  nearly  every 
case  the  bait  was  swallowed,  and  on  each  Bible  he  thus 
cleared  four  dollars  and  twenty  cents  net ! 

Running  the  elevator  in  the  building  where  a  promi- 
nent pubhshing  firm  had  its  office  was  a  negro  of  more 
than  ordinary  intelligence.  The  firm  had  just  published 
a  subscription  book  on  mechanical  engineering,  a  chap- 
ter of  which  was  devoted  to  the  construction  and  opera- 


142   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

tion  of  passenger  elevators.  One  of  the  agents  selling 
the  book  thought  he  might  find  a  customer  in  Wash- 
ington. 

"Wash,"  said  the  book-agent,  "you  ought  to  buy  a 
copy  of  this  book,  do  you  know  it?" 

"No,  boss,  don't  want  no  books.  Don't  git  no  time 
fo'  readin'  books,"  drawled  Wash.  "It  teks  all  mah 
time  to  run  dis  elevator." 

"But  this  book  will  help  you  to  nm  your  elevator. 
See  here:  there's  a  whole  chapter  here  on  elevators," 
persisted  the  canvasser. 

"Don't  want  no  help  to  run  dis  elevator,"  said  the 
darky.     "Dis  elevator  runs  all  right  now." 

"But,"  said  the  canvasser,  "this  will  help  you  to  run 
it  better.  You  will  know  twice  as  much  when  you  get 
through." 

"No,  boss,  no,  dat's  just  it,"  returned  Wash.  "Don't 
want  to  learn  nothing,  boss,"  he  said.  "Why,  boss,  I 
know  more  now  than  I  git  paid  for," 

There  was  one  New  York  newspaper  that  prided  it- 
self on  its  huge  circulation,  and  its  advertising  canvassers 
were  particularly  insistent  in  securing  the  advertisements 
of  publishers.  Of  course,  the  real  purpose  of  the  paper 
was  to  secure  a  certain  standing  for  itself,  which  it  lacked, 
rather  than  to  be  of  any  service  to  the  publishers. 

By  dint  of  perseverance,  its  agents  finally  secured  from 
one  of  the  ten-cent  magazines,  then  so  numerous,  a 
large  advertisement  of  a  special  number,  and  in  order 
to  test  the  drawing  power  of  the  newspaper  as  a  medium, 
there  was  inserted  a  Une  in  large  black  type : 

"SEND   TEN  CENTS   FOR  A  NUMBER." 


PUBLISHING  INCIDENTS  AND  ANECDOTES    143 

But  the  compositor  felt  that  magazine  literature 
should  be  even  cheaper  than  it  was,  and  to  that  thought 
in  his  mind  his  fingers  responded,  so  that  when  the  ad- 
vertisement appeared,  this  particular  bold-type  line 
read: 

"SEND  TEN  CENTS  FOR  A  YEAR." 

This  wonderful  offer  appealed  with  singular  force  to 
the  class  of  readers  of  this  particular  paper,  and  they 
decided  to  take  advantage  of  it.  The  advertisement 
appeared  on  Sunday,  and  Monday's  first  mail  brought 
the  magazine  over  eight  hundred  letters  with  ten  cents 
enclosed  "for  a  year's  subscription  as  per  your  adver- 
tisement in  yesterday's  ."  The  magazine  man- 
agement consulted  its  lawyer,  who  advised  the  publisher 
to  make  the  newspaper  pay  the  extra  ninety  cents  on 
each  subscription,  and,  although  this  demand  was  at 
first  refused,  the  proprietors  of  the  daily  finally  yielded. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  week  eight  thousand  and  fifty- 
five  letters  with  ten  cents  enclosed  had  reached  the  mag- 
azine, and  finally  the  total  was  a  few  over  twelve 
thousand ! 


CHAPTER  XIV 
LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK 

Edward  Bok's  lines  were  now  to  follow  those  of  ad- 
vertising for  several  years.  He  was  responsible  for  se- 
curing the  advertisements  for  The  Book  Buyer  and  The 
Presbyterian  Review.  While  the  former  was,  frankly, 
a  house-organ,  its  editorial  contents  had  so  broadened 
as  to  make  the  periodical  of  general  interest  to  book- 
lovers,  and  with  the  subscribers  constituting  the  valuable 
list  of  Scribner  book-buyers,  other  publishers  were  eager 
to  fish  in  the  Scribner  pond. 

With  The  Presbyterian  Review,  the  condition  was  dif- 
ferent. A  magazine  issued  quarterly  naturally  lacks 
the  continuity  desired  by  the  advertiser;  the  scope  of 
the  magazine  was  limited,  and  so  was  the  circulation. 
It  was  a  difficult  magazine  to  ^'sell"  to  the  advertiser, 
and  Bok's  salesmanship  was  taxed  to  the  utmost.  Al- 
though all  that  the  publishers  asked  was  that  the  ex- 
pense of  getting  out  the  periodical  be  met,  with  its  two 
hundred  and  odd  pages  even  this  was  difficult.  It  was 
not  an  attractive  proposition. 

The  most  interesting  feature  of  the  magazine  to  Bok 
appeared  to  be  the  method  of  editing.  It  was  ostensibly 
edited  by  a  board,  but,  practically,  by  Professor  Francis 
L.  Patton,  D.D.,  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary 
(afterward    president    of    Princeton    University),    and 

Doctor  Charles  A.  Briggs,  of  Union  Theological  Semi- 

144 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  145 

nary.  The  views  of  these  two  theologians  differed 
rather  widely,  and  when,  upon  several  occasions,  they 
met  in  Bok's  office,  on  bringing  in  their  different  articles 
to  go  into  the  magazine,  lively  discussions  ensued.  Bok 
did  not  often  get  the  drift  of  these  discussions,  but  he 
was  intensely  interested  in  listening  to  the  diverse  views 
of  the  two  theologians. 

One  day  the  question  of  heresy  came  up  between  the 
two  men,  and  during  a  pause  in  the  discussion,  Bok, 
looking  for  light,  turned  to  Doctor  Briggs  and  asked: 
"Doctor,  what  really  is  heresy?" 

Doctor  Briggs,  taken  off  his  guard  for  a  moment, 
looked  blankly  at  his  young  questioner,  and  repeated: 
"What  is  heresy?" 

"Yes,"  repeated  Bok,  "just  what  is  heresy,  Doctor?" 

"That's  right,"  interjected  Doctor  Patton,  with  a 
twinkle  in  his  eyes,  "what  is  heresy,  Briggs?" 

"Would  you  be  willing  to  write  it  down  for  me?" 
asked  Bok,  fearful  that  he  should  not  remember  Doctor 
Briggs's  definition  even  if  he  were  told. 

And  Doctor  Briggs  wrote: 

Heresy  is  anything  in  doctrine  or  practice  that  departs 
from  the  mind  of  the  Church  as  officially  defined. 

Charles  A.  Briggs. 

"Let  me  see,"  asked  Doctor  Patton,  and  when  he 
read  it,  he  muttered:  "Humph,  pretty  broad,  pretty 
broad." 

"Well,"  answered  the  nettled  Doctor  Briggs,  "per- 
haps you  can  give  a  less  broad  definition,  Patton." 

"No,  no,"  answered  the  Princeton  theologian,  as  the 


146   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

slightest  wink  came  from  the  eye  nearest  Bok,  "I 
wouldn't  attempt  it  for  a  moment.    Too  much  for  me." 

On  another  occasion,  as  the  two  were  busy  in  their 
discussion  of  some  article  to  be  inserted  in  the  magazine, 
Bok  listening  with  all  his  might,  Doctor  Patton,  sud- 
denly turning  to  the  young  listener,  asked,  in  the  midst 
of  the  argument:  "Whom  are  the  Giants  going  to  play 
this  afternoon,  Bok?" 

Doctor  Briggs's  face  was  a  study.  For  a  moment  the 
drift  of  the  question  was  an  enigma  to  him :  then  reahz- 
ing  that  an  important  theological  discussion  had  been 
interrupted  by  a  trivial  baseball  question,  he  gathered 
up  his  papers  and  stamped  violently  out  of  the  office. 
Doctor  Patton  made  no  comment,  but,  with  a  smile, 
he  asked  Bok:  "Johnnie  Ward  going  to  play  to-day,  do 
you  know?  Thought  I  might  ask  Mr.  Scribner  if  you 
could  go  up  to  the  game  this  afternoon." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  to  which  of  the  two  men  Bok 
was  the  more  attracted,  and  when  it  came,  each  quarter, 
to  figuring  how  many  articles  could  go  into  the  Review 
without  exceeding  the  cost  limit  fixed  by  the  house,  it 
was  always  a  puzzle  to  Doctor  Briggs  why  the  ma- 
jority of  the  articles  left  out  were  invariably  those  that 
he  had  brought  in,  while  many  of  those  which  Doctor 
Patton  handed  in  somehow  found  their  place,  upon  the 
final  assembling,  among  the  contents. 

"Your  articles  are  so  long,"  Bok  would  explain. 

"Long?"  Doctor  Briggs  would  echo.  "You  don't 
measure  theological  discussions  by  the  yardstick,  young 
man." 

"Perhaps  not,"  the  young  assembler  would  maintain. 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  147 

"But  we  have  to  do  some  measuring  here  by  the  com- 
position-stick, just  the  same." 

And  the  Union  Seminary  theologian  was  never  able 
successfully,  to  vault  that  hurdle ! 

From  his  boyhood  days  (up  to  the  present  writing) 
Bok  was  a  pronounced  baseball  "fan,"  and  so  Doctor 
Patton  appealed  to  a  warm  place  in  the  young  man's 
heart  when  he  asked  him  the  questions  about  the  New 
York  baseball  team.  There  was,  too,  a  baseball  team 
among  the  Scribner  young  men  of  which  Bok  was  a 
part.  This  team  played,  each  Saturday  afternoon,  a 
team  from  another  publishing  house,  and  for  two  sea- 
sons it  was  unbeatable.  Not  only  was  this  baseball 
aggregation  close  to  the  hearts  of  the  Scribner  em- 
ployees, but,  in  an  important  game,  the  junior  member 
of  the  firm  played  on  it  and  the  senior  member  was  a 
spectator.  Frank  N.  Doubleday  played  on  first  base; 
William  D.  Moffat,  later  of  Moffat,  Yard  &  Company, 
and  now  editor  of  The  Mentor,  was  behind  the  bat;  Bok 
pitched;  Ernest  Dressel  North,  the  present  authority 
on  rare  editions  of  books,  was  in  the  field,  as  were  also 
Ray  Safford,  now  a  director  in  the  Scribner  corporation, 
and  Owen  W.  Brewer,  at  present  a  prominent  figure  in 
Chicago's  book  world.  It  was  a  happy  group,  all  closely 
banded  together  in  their  business  interests  and  in  their 
human  relations  as  well. 

With  Scribner^ s  Magazine  now  in  the  periodical  field, 
Bok  would  be  asked  on  his  trips  to  the  publishing  houses 
to  have  an  eye  open  for  advertisements  for  that  periodical 
as  well.  Hence  his  education  in  the  solicitation  of  ad- 
vertisements became  general,  and  gave  him  a  sympa- 


148   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

thetic  understanding  of  the  problems  of  the  advertising 
solicitor  which  was  to  stand  him  in  good  stead  when,  in 
his  later  experience,  he  was  called  upon  to  view  the  busi- 
ness problems  of  a  magazine  from  the  editor's  position. 
His  knowledge  of  the  manufacture  of  the  two  magazines 
in  his  charge  was  likewise  educative,  as  was  the  fascinat- 
ing study  of  typography  which  always  had,  and  has  to- 
day, a  wonderful  attraction  for  him. 

It  was,  however,  in  connection  with  the  advertising 
of  the  general  books  of  the  house,  and  in  his  relations 
with  their  authors,  that  Bok  found  his  greatest  interest. 
It  was  for  him  to  find  the  best  manner  in  which  to  in- 
troduce to  the  public  the  books  issued  by  the  house, 
and  the  general  study  of  the  psychology  of  publicity 
which  this  called  for  attracted  Bok  greatly. 

Bok  was  now  asked  to  advertise  a  novel  published  by 
the  Scribners  which,  when  it  was  issued,  and  for  years 
afterward,  was  pointed  to  as  a  proof  of  the  notion  that 
a  famous  name  was  all  that  was  necessary  to  ensure  the 
acceptance  of  a  manuscript  by  even  a  leading  publishing 
house.  The  facts  in  the  case  were  that  this  manuscript 
was  handed  in  one  morning  by  a  friend  of  the  house  with 
the  remark  that  he  submitted  it  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
author,  who  did  not  desire  that  his  identity  should  be 
known  until  after  the  manuscript  had  been  read  and 
passed  upon  by  the  house.  It  was  explained  that  the 
writer  was  not  a  famous  author;  in  fact,  he  had  never 
written  anything  before;  this  was  his  first  book  of  any 
sort;  he  merely  wanted  to  "try  his  wings."  The  manu- 
script was  read  in  due  time  by  the  Scribner  readers,  and 
the  mutual  friend  was  advised  that  the  house  would  be 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  149 

glad  to  publish  the  novel,  and  was  ready  to  execute  and 
send  a  contract  to  the  author  if  the  firm  knew  in  whose 
name  the  agreement  should  be  made.  Then  came  the 
first  intimation  of  the  identity  of  the  author:  the  friend 
wrote  that  if  the  publishers  would  look  in  the  right-hand 
corner  of  the  first  page  of  the  manuscript  they  would 
find  there  the  author's  name.  Search  finally  revealed 
an  asterisk.  The  author  of  the  novel  (Valeniino)  was 
William  Waldorf  Astor. 

Although  the  Scribners  did  not  publish  Mark  Twain's 
books,  the  humorist  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  the  retail 
store,  and  occasionally  he  would  wander  back  to  the 
publishing  department  located  at  the  rear  of  the  store, 
which  was  then  at  743  Broadway. 

Smoking  was  not  permitted  in  the  Scribner  ofhces, 
and,  of  course,  Mark  Twain  was  always  smoking.  He 
generally  smoked  a  granulated  tobacco  which  he  kept 
in  a  long  check  bag  made  of  silk  and  rubber.  When 
he  sauntered  to  the  back  of  the  Scribner  store,  he  would 
generally  knock  the  residue  from  the  bowl  of  the  pipe, 
take  out  the  stem,  place  it  in  his  vest  pocket,  like  a 
pencil,  and  drop  the  bowl  into  the  bag  containing  the 
granulated  tobacco.  When  he  wanted  to  smoke  again 
(which  was  usually  five  minutes  later)  he  would  fish  out 
the  bowl,  now  automatically  filled  with  tobacco,  in- 
sert the  stem,  and  strike  a  light.  One  afternoon  as  he 
wandered  into  Bok's  office,  he  was  just  putting  his  pipe 
away.  The  pipe,  of  the  corncob  variety,  was  very  aged 
and  black.  Bok  asked  him  whether  it  was  the  only 
pipe  he  had. 

"Oh,  no,"  Mark  answered,  "I  have  several.      But 


I50  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

they're  all  like  this.  I  never  smoke  a  new  corncob  pipe. 
A  new  pipe  irritates  the  throat.  No  corncob  pipe  is 
fit  for  anything  until  it  has  been  used  at  least  a  fort- 
night." 

"How  do  you  break  in  a  pipe,  then?"  asked  Bok. 

"That's  the  trick,"  answered  Mark  Twain.  "I  get  a 
cheap  man — a  man  who  doesn't  amount  to  much,  any- 
how: who  would  be  as  well,  or  better,  dead — and  pay 
him  a  dollar  to  break  in  the  pipe  for  me.  I  get  him  to 
smoke  the  pipe  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  then  put  in  a  new 
stem,  and  continue  operations  as  long  as  the  pipe  holds 
together." 

Bok's  newspaper  syndicate  work  had  brought  him 
into  contact  with  Fanny  Davenport,  then  at  the  zenith 
of  her  career  as  an  actress.  Miss  Davenport,  or  Mrs. 
Melbourne  McDowell  as  she  was  in  private  life,  had 
never  written  for  print;  but  Bok,  seeing  that  she  had 
something  to  say  about  her  art  and  the  ability  to  say  it, 
induced  her  to  write  for  the  newspapers  through  his 
syndicate.  The  actress  was  overjoyed  to  have  re- 
vealed to  her  a  hitherto  unsuspected  gift;  Bok  published 
her  articles  successfully,  and  gave  her  a  publicity  that 
her  press  agent  had  never  dreamed  of.  Miss  Daven- 
port became  interested  in  the  young  publisher,  and 
after  watching  the  methods  which  he  employed  in  suc- 
cessfully pubUshing  her  writings,  decided  to  try  to  ob- 
tain his  services  as  her  assistant  manager.  She  broached 
the  subject,  offered  him  a  five  years'  contract  for  forty 
weeks'  service,  with  a  minimum  of  fifteen  weeks  each 
year  to  spend  in  or  near  New  York,  at  a  salary,  for 
the  first  year,   of   three   thousand   dollars,   increasing 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  151 

annually  until  the  fifth  year,  when  he  was  to  receive 
sixty-four  hundred  dollars. 

Bok  was  attracted  to  the  work :  he  had  never  seen  the 
United  States,  was  anxious  to  do  so,  and  looked  upon 
the  chance  as  a  good  opportunity.  Miss  Davenport 
had  the  contract  made  out,  executed  it,  and  then,  in 
high  glee,  Bok  took  it  home  to  show  it  to  his  mother. 
He  had  reckoned  without  question  upon  her  approval, 
only  to  meet  with  an  immediate  and  decided  negative 
to  the  proposition  as  a  whole,  general  and  specific. 
She  argued  that  the  theatrical  business  was  not  for  him; 
and  she  saw  ahead  and  pointed  out  so  strongly  the  mis- 
take he  was  making  that  he  sought  Miss  Davenport  the 
next  day  and  told  her  of  his  mother's  stand.  The  actress 
suggested  that  she  see  the  mother;  she  did,  that  day, 
and  she  came  away  from  the  interview  a  wiser  if  a  sadder 
woman.  Miss  Davenport  frankly  told  Bok  that  with 
such  an  instinctive  objection  as  his  mother  seemed  to 
have,  he  was  right  to  follow  her  advice  and  the  contract 
was  not  to  be  thought  of. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  this  was  or  was  not  for 
Bok  the  turning-point  which  comes  in  the  life  of  every 
young  man.  Where  the  venture  into  theatrical  Hfe 
would  have  led  him  no  one  can,  of  course,  say.  One 
thing  is  certain:  Bok's  instinct  and  reason  both  failed 
him  in  this  instance.  He  believes  now  that  had  his 
venture  into  the  theatrical  field  been  temporary  or 
permanent,  the  experiment,  either  way,  would  have  been 
disastrous. 

Looking  back  and  viewing  the  theatrical  profession 
even  as  it  was  in  that  day  (of  a  much  higher  order  than 


152   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

now),  he  is  convinced  he  would  never  have  been  happy  in 
it.  He  might  have  found  this  out  in  a  year  or  more, 
after  the  novelty  of  travelling  had  worn  off,  and  asked 
release  from  his  contract;  in  that  case  he  would  have 
broken  his  Hne  of  progress  in  the  publishing  business. 
From  whatever  viewpoint  he  has  looked  back  upon  this, 
which  he  now  believes  to  have  been  the  crisis  in  his  life, 
he  is  convinced  that  his  mother's  instinct  saved  him  from 
a  grievous  mistake. 

The  Scribner  house,  in  its  foreign-book  department, 
had  imported  some  copies  of  Bourrienne's  Life  of  Na- 
poleon, and  a  set  had  found  its  way  to  Bok's  desk  for 
advertising  purposes.  He  took  the  books  home  to  glance 
them  over,  found  himself  interested,  and  sat  up  half  the 
night  to  read  them.  Then  he  took  the  set  to  the  editor 
of  the  New  York  Star,  and  suggested  that  such  a  book 
warranted  a  special  review,  and  offered  to  leave  the 
work  for  the  literary  editor. 

''You  have  read  the  books?"  asked  the  editor. 

''Every  word,"  returned  Bok. 

"Then,  why  don't  you  write  the  review?"  suggested 
the  editor. 

This  was  a  new  thought  to  Bok.  "Never  wrote  a 
review,"  he  said. 

"Try  it,"  answered  the  editor.     "Write  a  column." 

"A  column  wouldn't  scratch  the  surface  of  this  book," 
suggested  the  embryo  reviewer. 

"Well,  give  it  what  it  is  worth,"  returned  the  editor. 

Bok  did.     He  wrote  a  page  of  the  paper. 

"Too  much,  too  much,"  said  the  editor.  "Heavens, 
man,  we've  got  to  get  some  news  into  this  paper." 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  153 

"Very  well,"  returned  the  reviewer.  "Read  it,  and 
cut  it  where  you  like.     That's  the  way  I  see  the  book." 

And  next  Sunday  the  review  appeared,  word  for  word, 
as  Bok  had  written  it.  His  first  review  had  successfully 
passed ! 

But  Bok  was  really  happiest  in  that  part  of  his  work 
which  concerned  itself  with  the  writing  of  advertise- 
ments. The  science  of  advertisement  writing,  which 
meant  to  him  the  capacity  to  say  much  in  little  space, 
appealed  strongly.  He  found  himself  more  honestly 
attracted  to  this  than  to  the  writing  of  his  literary  letter, 
his  editorials,  or  his  book  reviewing,  of  which  he  was 
now  doing  a  good  deal.  He  determined  to  follow  where 
his  bent  led;  he  studied  the  mechanics  of  unusual  ad- 
vertisements wherever  he  saw  them;  he  eagerly  sought 
a  knowledge  of  typography  and  its  best  handling  in  an 
advertisement,  and  of  the  value  and  relation  of  illustra- 
tions to  text.  He  perceived  that  his  work  along  these 
lines  seemed  to  give  satisfaction  to  his  employers,  since 
they  placed  more  of  it  in  his  hands  to  do;  and  he  sought 
in  every  way  to  become  proficient  in  the  art. 

To  publishers  whose  advertisements  he  secured  for 
the  periodicals  in  his  charge,  he  made  suggestions  for 
the  improvement  of  their  announcements,  and  found 
his  suggestions  accepted.  He  early  saw  the  value  of 
white  space  as  one  of  the  most  effective  factors  in  ad- 
vertising; but  this  was  a  difficult  argument,  he  soon 
found,  to  convey  successfully  to  others.  A  white  space 
in  an  advertisement  was  to  the  average  publisher  some- 
thing to  fill  up;  Bok  saw  in  it  something  to  cherish  for 
its  effectiveness.     But  he  never  got  very  far  with  his 


154   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

idea:  he  could  not  convince  (perhaps  because  he  failed 
to  express  his  ideas  convincingly)  his  advertisers  of 
what  he  felt  and  beUeved  so  strongly. 

An  occasion  came  in  which  he  was  permitted  to  prove 
his  contention.  The  Scribners  had  published  Andrew 
Carnegie's  volume,  Triumphant  Democracy,  and  the 
author  desired  that  some  special  advertising  should  be 
done  in  addition  to  that  allowed  by  the  appropriation 
made  by  the  house.  To  Bok's  grateful  ears  came  the 
injunction  from  the  steel  magnate:  ''Use  plenty  of 
white  space."  In  conjunction  with  Mr.  Doubleday, 
Bok  prepared  and  issued  this  extra  advertising,  and  for 
once,  at  least,  the  wisdom  of  using  white  space  was 
demonstrated.  But  it  was  only  a  flash  in  the  pan. 
Publishers  were  unwilling  to  pay  for  "unused  space," 
as  they  termed  it.  Each  book  was  a  separate  unit, 
others  argued:  it  was  not  Hke  advertising  one  article 
continuously  in  which  money  could  be  invested;  and 
only  a  limited  amount  could  be  spent  on  a  book  which 
ran  its  course,  even  at  its  best,  in  a  very  short  time. 

And,  rightly  or  wrongly,  book  advertising  has  con- 
tinued much  along  the  same  lines  until  the  present  day. 
In  fact,  in  no  department  of  manufacturing  or  selKng 
activity  has  there  been  so  little  progress  during  the  past 
fifty  years  as  in  bringing  books  to  the  notice  of  the  public. 
In  all  other  lines,  the  producer  has  brought  his  wares  to 
the  public,  making  it  easier  and  still  easier  for  it  to  ob- 
tain his  goods,  while  the  public,  if  it  wants  a  book,  must 
still  seek  the  book  instead  of  being  sought  by  it. 

That  there  is  a  tremendous  unsupplied  book  demand 
in  this  country^  there  is  no  doubt:  the  wider  distribution 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  155 

and  easier  access  given  to  periodicals  prove  this  point. 
Now  and  then  there  has  been  tried  an  unsupported  or 
not  well-thought-out  plan  for  bringing  books  to  a  public 
not  now  reading  them,  but  there  seems  little  or  no  under- 
standing of  the  fact  that  there  lies  an  uncultivated  field 
of  tremendous  promise  to  the  publisher  who  will  strike 
out  on  a  new  line  and  market  his  books,  so  that  the 
public  will  not  have  to  ferret  out  a  book-store  or  wind 
through  the  maze  of  a  department  store.  The  Ameri- 
can reading  public  is  not  the  book-reading  public  that 
it  should  be  or  could  be  made  to  be;  but  the  habit  must 
be  made  easy  for  it  to  acquire.  Books  must  be  placed 
where  the  public  can  readily  get  at  them.  It  will  not, 
of  its  own  volition,  seek  them.  It  did  not  do  so  with 
magazines;  it  will  not  do  so  with  books. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Bok's  literary  letter  had  prospered 
until  it  was  now  published  in  some  forty-five  newspapers. 
One  of  these  was  the  Philadelphia  Times.  In  that 
paper,  each  week,  the  letter  had  been  read  by  Mr. 
Cyrus  H.  K.  Curtis,  the  owner  and  publisher  of  The 
Ladies^  Home  Journal.  Mr.  Curtis  had  decided  that 
he  needed  an  editor  for  his  magazine,  in  order  to  relieve 
his  wife,  who  was  then  editing  it,  and  he  fixed  upon  the 
writer  of  Literary  Leaves  as  his  man.  He  came  to  New 
York,  consulted  Will  Carleton,  the  poet,  and  found  that 
while  the  letter  was  signed  by  William  J.  Bok,  it  was 
actually  written  by  his  brother  who  was  with  the 
Scribners.     So  he  sought  Bok  out  there. 

The  publishing  house  had  been  advertising  in  the 
Philadelphia  magazine,  so  that  the  visit  of  Mr.  Curtis 
was  not  an  occasion  for  surprise.     Mr.  Curtis  told  Bok 


156   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

he  had  read  his  literary  letter  in  the  Philadelphia  Times ^ 
and  suggested  that  perhaps  he  might  write  a  similar 
department  for  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal.  Bok  saw 
no  reason  why  he  should  not,  and  told  Mr.  Curtis  so, 
and  promised  to  send  over  a  trial  instalment.  The 
Philadelphia  publisher  then  deftly  went  on,  explained 
editorial  conditions  in  his  magazine,  and,  recognizing 
the  ethics  of  the  occasion  by  not  offering  Bok  another 
position  while  he  was  already  occupying  one,  asked 
him  if  he  knew  the  man  for  the  place. 

"Are  you  talking  at  me  or  through  me?"  asked  Bok. 

"Both,"  replied  Mr.  Curtis. 

This  was  in  April  of  1889. 

Bok  promised  Mr.  Curtis  he  would  look  over  the  field, 
and  meanwhile  he  sent  over  to  Philadelphia  the  prom- 
ised trial  "literary  gossip"  instalment.  It  pleased  Mr. 
Curtis,  who  suggested  a  monthly  department,  to  which 
Bok  consented.  He  also  turned  over  in  his  mind  the 
wisdom  of  interrupting  his  line  of  progress  with  the 
Scribners,  and  in  New  York,  and  began  to  contemplate 
the  possibilities  in  Philadelphia  and  the  work  there. 

He  gathered  a  collection  of  domestic  magazines  then 
published,  and  looked  them  over  to  see  what  was  al- 
ready in  the  field.  Then  he  began  to  study  himself, 
his  capacity  for  the  work,  and  the  possibility  of  finding 
it  congenial.  He  realized  that  it  was  absolutely  for- 
eign to  his  Scribner  work:  that  it  meant  a  radical  de- 
parture. But  his  work  with  his  newspaper  syndicate 
naturally  occurred  to  him,  and  he  studied  it  with  a 
view  of  its  adaptation  to  the  field  of  the  Philadelphia 
magazine. 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  157 

His  next  step  was  to  take  into  his  confidence  two  or 
three  friends  whose  judgment  he  trusted  and  discuss  the 
possible  change.  Without  an  exception,  they  advised 
against  it.  The  periodical  had  no  standing,  they  argued ; 
Bok  would  be  out  of  sympathy  with  its  general  at- 
mosphere after  his  Scribner  environment;  he  was  now 
in  the  direct  line  of  progress  in  New  York  publishing 
houses;  and,  to  cap  the  climax,  they  each  argued  in 
turn,  he  would  be  buried  in  Philadelphia:  New  York 
was  the  centre,  etc.,  etc. 

More  than  any  other  single  argument,  this  last  point 
destroyed  Bok's  faith  in  the  judgment  of  his  friends. 
He  had  had  experience  enough  to  realize  that  a  man  could 
not  be  buried  in  any  city,  provided  he  had  the  abihty  to 
stand  out  from  his  fellow-men.  He  knew  from  his 
biographical  reading  that  cream  will  rise  to  the  surface 
anywhere,  in  Philadelphia  as  well  as  in  New  York:  it 
all  depended  on  whether  the  cream  was  there:  it  was 
up  to  the  man.  Had  he  within  him  that  peculiar, 
subtle  something  that,  for  the  want  of  a  better  phrase, 
we  call  the  editorial  instinct?  That  was  all  there  was 
to  it,  and  that  decision  had  to  be  his  and  his  alone  ! 

A  business  trip  for  the  Scribners  now  calling  him 
West,  Bok  decided  to  stop  at  Philadelphia,  have  a  talk 
with  Mr.  Curtis,  and  look  over  his  business  plant.  He 
did  this,  and  found  Mr.  Curtis  even  more  desirous  than 
before  to  have  him  consider  the  position.  Bok's  in- 
stinct was  strongly  in  favor  of  an  acceptance.  A  nat- 
ural impulse  moved  him,  without  reasoning,  to  action. 
Reasoning  led  only  to  a  cautious  mental  state,  and  cau- 
tion is  a  strong  factor  in  the  Dutch  character.     The 


I  $8  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

longer  he  pursued  a  conscious  process  of  reasoning,  the 
farther  he  got  from  the  position.  But  the  instinct  re- 
mained strong. 

On  his  way  back  from  the  West,  he  stopped  in  Phila- 
delphia again  to  consult  his  friend,  George  W.  Childs; 
and  here  he  found  the  only  person  who  was  ready  to 
encourage  him  to  make  the  change. 

Bok  now  laid  the  matter  before  his  mother,  in  whose 
feminine  instinct  he  had  supreme  confidence.  With 
her,  he  met  with  instant  discouragement.  But  in  sub- 
sequent talks  he  found  that  her  opposition  was  based 
not  upon  the  possibilities  inherent  in  the  position,  but 
on  a  mother's  natural  disinclination  to  be  separated 
from  one  of  her  sons.  In  the  case  of  Fanny  Davenport's 
offer  the  mother's  instinct  was  strong  against  the  prop- 
osition itself.  But  in  the  present  instance  it  was  the 
mother's  love  that  was  speaking;  not  her  instinct  or 
judgment. 

Bok  now  consulted  his  business  associates,  and,  to 
a  man,  they  discouraged  the  step,  but  almost  invariably 
upon  the  argument  that  it  was  suicidal  to  leave  New 
York.  He  had  now  a  glimpse  of  the  truth  that  there  is 
no  man  so  provincially  narrow  as  the  untravelled  New 
Yorker  who  believes  in  his  heart  that  the  sun  rises  in 
the  East  River  and  sets  in  the  North  River. 

He  realized  more  keenly  than  ever  before  that  the 
decision  rested  with  him  alone.  On  September  i,  1889, 
Bok  wrote  to  Mr.  Curtis,  accepting  the  position  in 
Philadelphia;  and  on  October  13  following  he  left 
the  Scribners,  where  he  had  been  so  fortunate  and  so 
happy,  and,  after  a  week's  vacation,  followed  where 


SIEKE  GERTRUDE  BOK 
Mother  of  Edward  Bok 


LAST  YEARS  IN  NEW  YORK  159 

his  instinct  so  strongly   led,   but   where   his   reason 
wavered. 

On  October  20,  1889,  Edward  Bok  became  the  editor 
of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal. 


CHAPTER  XV 
SUCCESSFUL  EDITORSHIP 

There  is  a  popular  notion  that  the  editor  of  a  woman's 
magazine  should  be  a  woman.  At  first  thought,  per- 
haps, this  sounds  logical.  But  it  is  a  curious  fact  that 
by  far  the  larger  number  of  periodicals  for  women,  the 
world  over,  are  edited  by  men;  and  where,  as  in  some 
cases,  a  woman  is  the  proclaimed  editor,  the  direction 
of  the  editorial  policy  is  generally  in  the  hands  of  a 
man,  or  group  of  men,  in  the  background.  Why  this 
is  so  has  never  been  explained,  any  more  than  why  the 
majority  of  women's  dressmakers  are  men;  why  music, 
with  its  larger  appeal  to  women,  has  been  and  is  still 
being  composed,  largely,  by  men,  and  why  its  greatest 
instrumental  performers  are  likewise  men;  and  why  the 
church,  with  its  larger  membership  of  women,  still  has, 
as  it  always  has  had,  men  for  its  greatest  preachers. 

In  fact,  we  may  well  ponder  whether  the  full  editorial 
authority  and  direction  of  a  modern  magazine,  either 
essentially  feminine  in  its  appeal  or  not,  can  safely  be 
entrusted  to  a  woman  when  one  considers  how  largely 
executive  is  the  nature  of  such  a  position,  and  how 
thoroughly  sensitive  the  modern  editor  must  be  to  the 
hundred  and  one  practical  business  matters  which  to- 
day enter  into  and  form  so  large  a  part  of  the  editorial 
duties.  We  may  question  whether  women  have  as 
yet  had  sufficient  experience  in  the  world  of  business  to 

i6o 


SUCCESSFUL  EDITORSHIP  i6i 

cope  successfully  with  the  material  questions  of  a  pivotal 
editorial  position.  Then,  again,  it  is  absolutely  essential 
in  the  conduct  of  a  magazine  with  a  feminine  or  home 
appeal  to  have  on  the  editorial  stafif  women  who  are 
experts  in  their  line;  and  the  truth  is  that  women  will 
work  infinitely  better  under  the  direction  of  a  man  than 
of  a  woman. 

It  would  seem  from  the  present  outlook  that,  for 
some  time,  at  least,  the  so-called  woman's  magazine  of 
large  purpose  and  wide  vision  is  very  likely  to  be  edited 
by  a  man.  It  is  a  question,  however,  whether  the  day 
of  the  woman's  magazine,  as  we  have  known  it,  is  not 
passing.  Already  the  day  has  gone  for  the  woman's 
magazine  built  on  the  old  lines  which  now  seem  so  gro- 
tesque and  feeble  in  the  light  of  modern  growth.  The 
interests  of  women  and  of  men  are  being  brought  closer 
with  the  years,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  they  will 
entirely  merge.  This  means  a  constantly  diminishing 
necessity  for  the  distinctly  feminine  magazine. 

Naturally,  there  will  always  be  a  field  in  the  essentially 
feminine  pursuits  which  have  no  place  in  the  life  of  a 
man,  but  these  are  rapidly  being  cared  for  by  books, 
gratuitously  distributed,  issued  by  the  manufacturers 
of  distinctly  feminine  and  domestic  wares;  for  such  pub- 
lications the  best  talent  is  being  employed,  and  the  re- 
sults are  placed  within  easy  access  of  women,  by  means 
of  newspaper  advertisement,  the  store-counter,  or  the 
mails.  These  will  sooner  or  later — and  much  sooner 
than  later — supplant  the  practical  portions  of  the  wo- 
man's magazine,  leaving  only  the  general  contents,  which 
are  equally  interesting  to  men  and  to  women.     Hence 


1 62   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  field  for  the  magazine  with  the  essentially  feminine 
appeal  is  contracting  rather  than  broadening,  and  it  is 
likely  to  contract  much  more  rapidly  in  the  future. 

The  field  was  altogether  different  when  Edward  Bok 
entered  it  in  1889.  It  was  not  only  wide  open,  but 
fairly  crying  out  to  be  filled.  The  day  of  Godey^s 
Lady^s  Book  had  passed;  Peterson's  Magazine  was 
breathing  its  last;  and  the  home  or  women's  magazines 
that  had  attempted  to  take  their  place  were  sorry  af- 
fairs. It  was  this  consciousness  of  a  void  ready  to  be 
filled  that  made  the  Philadelphia  experiment  so  attrac- 
tive to  the  embryo  editor.  He  looked  over  the  field  and 
reasoned  that  if  such  magazines  as  did  exist  could  be 
fairly  successful,  if  women  were  ready  to  buy  such,  how 
much  greater  response  would  there  be  to  a  magazine  of 
higher  standards,  of  larger  initiative — a  magazine  that 
would  be  an  authoritative  clearing-house  for  all  the 
problems  confronting  women  in  the  home,  that  brought 
itself  closely  into  contact  with  those  problems  and  tried 
to  solve  them  in  an  entertaining  and  efficient  way;  and 
yet  a  magazine  of  uplift  and  inspiration:  a  magazine, 
in  other  words,  that  would  give  light  and  leading  in  the 
woman's  world. 

The  method  of  editorial  expression  in  the  magazines 
of  1889  was  also  distinctly  vague  and  prohibitively  im- 
personal. The  public  knew  the  name  of  scarcely  a  single 
editor  of  a  magazine :  there  was  no  personality  that  stood 
out  in  the  mind:  the  accepted  editorial  expression  was 
the  indefinite  "we";  no  one  ventured  to  use  the  first 
person  singular  and  talk  intimately  to  the  reader. 
Edward  Bok's  biographical  reading  had  taught  him  that 


SUCCESSFUL  EDITORSHIP  163 

the  American  public  loved  a  personality :  that  it  was  al- 
ways ready  to  recognize  and  follow  a  leader,  provided, 
of  course,  that  the  qualities  of  leadership  were  demon- 
strated. He  felt  the  time  had  come — the  reference  here 
and  elsewhere  is  always  to  the  realm  of  popular  magazine 
literature  appealing  to  a  very  wide  audience — for  the 
editor  of  some  magazine  to  project  his  personality 
through  the  printed  page  and  to  convince  the  pubUc 
that  he  was  not  an  oracle  removed  from  the  people, 
but  a  real  human  being  who  could  talk  and  not  merely 
write  on  paper. 

He  saw,  too,  that  the  average  popular  magazine  of 
1889  failed  of  large  success  because  it  wrote  down  to  the 
pubUc — a  grievous  mistake  that  so  many  editors  have 
made  and  still  make.  No  one  wants  to  be  told,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  that  he  knows  less  than  he  does, 
or  even  that  he  knows  as  little  as  he  does:  every  one  is 
benefited  by  the  opposite  implication,  and  the  public 
will  always  follow  the  leader  who  comprehends  this  bit 
of  psychology.  There  is  always  a  happy  medium  be- 
tween shooting  over  the  public's  head  and  shooting  too 
far  under  it.  And  it  is  because  of  the  latter  aim  that 
we  find  the  modem  popular  magazine  the  worthless 
thing  that,  in  so  many  instances,  it  is  to-day. 

It  is  the  rare  editor  who  rightly  gauges  his  pubHc 
psychology.  Perhaps  that  is  why,  in  the  enormous 
growth  of  the  modern  magazine,  there  have  been  pro- 
duced so  few  successful  editors.  The  average  editor  is 
obsessed  with  the  idea  of  "giving  the  public  what  it 
wants,"  whereas,  in  fact,  the  public,  while  it  knows 
what  it  wants  when  it  sees  it,  cannot  clearly  express  its 


1 64  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

wants,  and  never  wants  the  thing  that  it  does  ask  for, 
although  it  thinks  it  does  at  the  time.  But  woe  to  the 
editor  and  his  periodical  if  he  heeds  that  siren  voice ! 

The  editor  has,  therefore,  no  means  of  finding  it  out 
aforehand  by  putting  his  ear  to  the  ground.  Only  by 
the  simplest  rules  of  psychology  can  he  edit  rightly  so 
that  he  may  lead,  and  to  the  average  editor  of  to-day, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  psychology  is  a  closed  book.  His 
mind  is  all  too  often  focussed  on  the  circulation  and  ad- 
vertising, and  all  too  little  on  the  intangibles  that  will 
bring  to  his  periodical  the  results  essential  in  these 
respects. 

The  editor  is  the  pivot  of  a  magazine.  On  him  every- 
thing turns.  If  his  gauge  of  the  public  is  correct,  readers 
will  come :  they  cannot  help  coming  to  the  man  who  has 
something  to  say  himself,  or  who  presents  writers  who 
have.  And  if  the  reader  comes,  the  advertiser  must 
come.  He  must  go  where  his  largest  market  is:  where 
the  buyers  are.  The  advertiser,  instead  of  being  the 
most  difficult  factor  in  a  magazine  proposition,  as  is  so 
often  mistakenly  thought,  is,  in  reality,  the  simplest. 
He  has  no  choice  but  to  advertise  in  the  successful  peri- 
odical. He  must  come  along.  The  editor  need  never 
worry  about  him.  If  the  advertiser  shuns  the  periodi- 
cal's pages,  the  fault  is  rarely  that  of  the  advertiser: 
the  editor  can  generally  look  for  the  reason  nearer  home. 

One  of  Edward  Bok's  first  acts  as  editor  was  to  offer 
a  series  of  prizes  for  the  best  answers  to  three  questions 
he  put  to  his  readers:  what  in  the  magazine  did  they  like 
least  and  why;  what  did  they  like  best  and  why;  and 
what  omitted  feature  or  department  would  they  like  to 


SUCCESSFUL  EDITORSHIP  165 

see  installed?  Thousands  of  answers  came,  and  these 
the  editor  personally  read  carefuUy  and  classified.  Then 
he  gave  his  readers'  suggestions  back  to  them  in  articles 
and  departments,  but  never  on  the  level  suggested  by 
them.  He  gave  them  the  subjects  they  asked  for,  but 
invariably  on  a  slightly  higher  plane;  and  each  year  he 
raised  the  standard  a  notch.  He  always  kept  "a  huckle- 
berry or  two"  ahead  of  his  readers.  His  psychology 
was  simple:  come  down  to  the  level  which  the  public 
sets  and  it  will  leave  you  at  the  moment  you  do  it. 
It  always  expects  of  its  leaders  that  they  shall  keep  a 
notch  above  or  a  step  ahead.  The  American  public 
always  wants  something  a  little  better  than  it  asks  for, 
and  the  successful  man,  in  catering  to  it,  is  he  who  fol- 
lows this  golden  rule. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR 

Edward  Bok  has  often  been  referred  to  as  the  one 
"who  made  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  out  of  nothing," 
who  ''built  it  from  the  ground  up,"  or,  in  similar  terms, 
implying  that  when  he  became  its  editor  in  1889  the 
magazine  was  practically  non-existent.  This  is  far  from 
the  fact.  The  magazine  was  begun  in  1883,  and  had 
been  edited  by  Mrs.  Cyrus  H.  K.  Curtis,  for  six  years, 
under  her  maiden  name  of  Louisa  Knapp,  before  Bok 
undertook  its  editorship.  Mrs.  Curtis  had  laid  a  solid 
foundation  of  principle  and  policy  for  the  magazine: 
it  had  achieved  a  circulation  of  440,000  copies  a  month 
when  she  transferred  the  editorship,  and  it  had  already 
acquired  such  a  standing  in  the  periodical  world  as  to 
attract  the  advertisements  of  Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
which  Mr.  Doubleday,  and  later  Bok  himself,  gave  to 
the  Philadelphia  magazine — advertising  which  was  never 
given  lightly,  or  without  the  most  careful  investigation 
of  the  worth  of  the  circulation  of  a  periodical. 

What  every  magazine  publisher  knows  as  the  most 
troublous  years  in  the  establishment  of  a  periodical, 
the  first  half-dozen  years  of  its  existence,  had  already 
been  weathered  by  the  editor  and  publisher.  The  wife 
as  editor  and  the  husband  as  publisher  had  combined  to 
lay  a  solid  basis  upon  which  Bok  had  only  to  build:  his 
task  was  simply  to  rear  a  structure  upon  the  foundation 

already  laid.     It  is  to  the  vision  and  to  the  genius  of  the 

166 


FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR        167 

first  editor  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  that  the  un- 
precedented success  of  the  magazine  is  primarily  due. 
It  was  the  purpose  and  the  poUcy  of  making  a  magazine 
of  authoritative  service  for  the  womanhood  of  America, 
a  service  which  would  visualize  for  womanhood  its 
highest  domestic  estate,  that  had  won  success  for  the 
periodical  from  its  inception.  It  is  difficult  to  beheve, 
in  the  multiplicity  of  similar  magazines  to-day,  that  such 
a  purpose  was  new;  that  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  was 
a  path-finder;  but  the  convincing  proof  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  aU  the  later  magazines  of  this  class  have  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  the  periodical  conceived  by  Mrs. 
Curtis,  and  have  ever  since  been  its  imitators. 

When  Edward  Bok  succeeded  Mrs.  Curtis,  he  imme- 
diately encountered  another  popular  misconception  of 
a  woman's  magazine — the  conviction  that  if  a  man  is 
the  editor  of  a  periodical  with  a  distinctly  feminine  ap- 
peal, he  must,  as  the  term  goes,  ''understand  women." 
If  Bok  had  believed  this  to  be  true,  he  would  never  have 
assumed  the  position.  How  deeply  rooted  is  this  be- 
lief was  brought  home  to  him  on  every  hand  when  his 
decision  to  accept  the  Philadelphia  position  was  an- 
nounced. His  mother,  knowing  her  son  better  than  did 
any  one  else,  looked  at  him  with  amazement.  She 
could  not  believe  that  he  was  serious  in  his  decision  to 
cater  to  women's  needs  when  he  knew  so  little  about 
them.  His  friends,  too,  were  intensely  amused,  and 
took  no  pains  to  hide  their  amusement  from  him. 
They  knew  him  to  be  the  very  opposite  of  "a  lady's 
man,"  and  when  they  were  not  convulsed  with  hilarity 
they  were  incredulous  and  marvelled. 


1 68   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

No  man,  perhaps,  could  have  been  chosen  for  the 
position  who  had  a  less  intimate  knowledge  of  women. 
Bok  had  no  sister,  no  women  confidantes:  he  had 
lived  with  and  for  his  mother.  She  was  the  only  woman 
he  really  knew  or  who  really  knew  him.  His  boyhood 
days  had  been  too  fuU  of  poverty  and  struggle  to  per- 
mit him  to  mingle  with  the  opposite  sex.  And  it  is  a 
curious  fact  that  Edward  Bok's  instinctive  attitude 
toward  women  was  that  of  avoidance.  He  did  not  dis- 
like women,  but  it  could  not  be  said  that  he  liked  them. 
They  had  never  interested  him.  Of  women,  therefore, 
he  knew  little;  of  their  needs  less.  Nor  had  he  the 
slightest  desire,  even  as  an  editor,  to  know  them  better, 
or  to  seek  to  understand  them.  Even  at  that  age,  he 
knew  that,  as  a  man,  he  could  not,  no  matter  what 
effort  he  might  make,  and  he  let  it  go  at  that. 

What  he  saw  in  the  position  was  not  the  need  to  know 
women;  he  could  employ  women  for  that  purpose.  He 
perceived  clearly  that  the  editor  of  a  magazine  was 
largely  an  executive:  his  was  principally  the  work  of 
direction;  of  studying  currents  and  movements,  watch- 
ing their  formation,  their  tendency,  their  eflScacy  if  ad- 
vocated or  translated  into  actuality;  and  then  selecting 
from  the  horizon  those  that  were  for  the  best  interests  of 
the  home.  For  a  home  was  something  Edward  Bok  did 
understand.  He  had  always  lived  in  one;  had  struggled 
to  keep  it  together,  and  he  knew  every  inch  of  the  hard 
road  that  makes  for  domestic  permanence  amid  adverse 
financial  conditions.  And  at  the  home  he  aimed  rather 
than  at  the  woman  in  it. 

It  was  upon  his  instinct  that  he  intended  to  rely  rather 


FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR        169 

than  upon  any  knowledge  of  woman.  His  first  act  in 
the  editorial  chair  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  showed 
him  to  be  right  in  this  diagnosis  of  himself,  for  the  in- 
cident proved  not  only  how  correct  was  his  instinct,  but 
how  woefully  lacking  he  was  in  any  knowledge  of  the 
feminine  nature. 

He  had  divined  the  fact  that  in  thousands  of  cases 
the  American  mother  was  not  the  confidante  of  her 
daughter,  and  reasoned  if  an  inviting  human  personality 
could  be  created  on  the  printed  page  that  would  supply 
this  lamentable  lack  of  American  family  life,  girls  would 
flock  to  such  a  figure.  But  all  depended  on  the  confidence 
which  the  written  word  could  inspire.  He  tried  several 
writers,  but  in  each  case  the  particular  touch  that  he 
sought  for  was  lacking.  It  seemed  so  simple  to  him, 
and  yet  he  could  not  translate  it  to  others.  Then, 
in  desperation,  he  wrote  an  instalment  of  such  a  de- 
partment as  he  had  in  mind  himself,  intending  to  show 
it  to  a  writer  he  had  in  view,  thus  giving  her  a  visual 
demonstration.  He  took  it  to  the  office  the  next  morn- 
ing, intending  to  have  it  copied,  but  the  manuscript 
accidentally  attached  itself  to  another  intended  for  the 
composing-room,  and  it  was  not  until  the  superintendent 
of  the  composing-room  during  the  day  said  to  him,  "I 
didn't  know  Miss  Ashmead  wrote,"  that  Bok  knew 
where  his  manuscript  had  gone. 

"Miss  Ashmead?"  asked  the  puzzled  editor. 

"Yes,  Miss  Ashmead  in  your  department,"  was  the 
answer. 

The  whereabouts  of  the  manuscript  was  then  dis- 
closed, and  the  editor  called  for  its  return.     He  had 


I70  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

called    the    department   "Side  Talks  with   Girls"  by 
Ruth  Ashmead. 

"My  girls  all  hope  this  is  going  into  the  magazine," 
said  the  superintendent  when  he  returned  the  manu- 
script. 

"Why?"  asked  the  editor. 

"Well,  they  say  it's  the  best  stuff  for  girls  they 
have  ever  read.  They'd  love  to  know  Miss  Ashmead 
better." 

Here  was  exactly  what  the  editor  wanted,  but  he  was 
the  author!  He  changed  the  name  to  Ruth  Ashmore, 
and  decided  to  let  the  manuscript  go  into  the  magazine. 
He  reasoned  that  he  would  then  have  a  month  in  which 
to  see  the  writer  he  had  in  mind,  and  he  would  show 
her  the  proof.  But  a  month  filled  itself  with  other 
duties,  and  before  the  editor  was  aware  of  it,  the  com- 
position-room wanted  "copy"  for  the  second  instalment 
of  "Side  Talks  with  Girls."  Once  more  the  editor  fur- 
nished the  copy ! 

Within  two  weeks  after  the  second  article  had  been 
written,  the  magazine  containing  the  first  instalment  of 
the  new  department  appeared,  and  the  next  day  two 
hundred  letters  were  received  for  "Ruth  Ashmore," 
with  the  mail-clerk  asking  where  they  should  be  sent. 
"Leave  them  with  me,  please,"  replied  the  editor.  On 
the  following  day  the  mail-clerk  handed  him  five  hun- 
dred more. 

The  editor  now  took  two  letters  from  the  top  and 
opened  them.  He  never  opened  the  third !  That 
evening  he  took  the  bundle  home,  and  told  his  mother 
of  his  predicament.     She  read  the  letters  and  looked 


FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR        171 

at  her  son.  "You  have  no  right  to  read  these,"  she 
said.    The  son  readily  agreed. 

His  instinct  had  correctly  interpreted  the  need,  but 
he  never  dreamed  how  far  the  feminine  nature  would 
reveal  itself  on  paper. 

The  next  morning  the  editor,  with  his  letters,  took 
the  train  for  New  York  and  sought  his  friend,  Mrs. 
Isabel  A.  Mallon,  the  ''Bab"  of  his  popular  syndicate 
letter. 

"Have  you  read  this  department?"  he  asked,  point- 
ing to  the  page  in  the  magazine. 

"I  have,"  answered  Mrs.  Mallon.  "Very  well  done, 
too,  it  is.     Who  is  'Ruth  Ashmore'?" 

"You  are,"  answered  Edward  Bok.  And  while  it 
took  considerable  persuasion,  from  that  time  on  Mrs. 
Mallon  became  Ruth  Ashmore,  the  most  ridiculed  writer 
in  the  magazine  world,  and  yet  the  most  helpful  editor 
that  ever  conducted  a  department  in  periodical  litera- 
ture. For  sixteen  years  she  conducted  the  department, 
until  she  passed  away,  her  last  act  being  to  dictate  a 
letter  to  a  correspondent.  In  those  sixteen  years  she 
had  received  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  thousand  let- 
ters: she  kept  three  stenographers  busy,  and  the  num- 
ber of  girls  who  to-day  bless  the  name  of  Ruth  Ashmore 
is  legion. 

But  the  newspaper  humorists  who  insisted  that  Ruth 
Ashmore  was  none  other  than  Edward  Bok  never  knew 
the  partial  truth  of  their  joke  ! 

The  editor  soon  supplemented  this  department  with 
one  dealing  with  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  mature 
woman.     "The   King's   Daughters"   was   then   an   or- 


172   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

ganization  at  the  summit  of  its  usefulness,  with  Margaret 
Bottome  its  president.  Edward  Bok  had  heard  Mrs. 
Bottome  speak,  had  met  her  personally,  and  decided 
that  she  was  the  editor  for  the  department  he  had  in 
mind. 

''I  want  it  written  in  an  intimate  way  as  if  there  were 
only  two  persons  in  the  world,  you  and  the  person  read- 
ing. I  want  heart  to  speak  to  heart.  We  will  make  that 
the  title,"  said  the  editor,  and  unconsciously  he  thus 
created  the  title  that  has  since  become  familiar  wherever 
English  is  spoken:  "Heart  to  Heart  Talks."  The 
title  gave  the  department  an  instantaneous  hearing; 
the  material  in  it  carried  out  its  spirit,  and  soon  Mrs. 
Bottome's  department  rivalled,  in  popularity,  the  page 
by  Ruth  Ashmore. 

These  two  departments  more  than  anything  else,  and 
the  irresistible  picture  of  a  man  editing  a  woman's 
magazine,  brought  forth  an  era  of  newspaper  para- 
graphing and  a  flood  of  so-called  "humorous"  references 
to  the  magazine  and  editor.  It  became  the  vogue  to 
poke  fun  at  both.  The  humorous  papers  took  it  up, 
the  cartoonists  helped  it  along,  and  actors  introduced 
the  name  of  the  magazine  on  the  stage  in  plays  and 
skits.  Never  did  a  periodical  receive  such  an  amount 
of  gratuitous  advertising.  Much  of  the  wit  was  ab- 
solutely without  malice:  some  of  it  was  written  by  Ed- 
ward Bok's  best  friends,  who  volunteered  to  "let  up" 
would  he  but  raise  a  finger. 

But  he  did  not  raise  the  finger.  No  one  enjoyed  the 
"paragraphs"  more  heartily  when  the  wit  was  good,  and 
in  that  case,  if  the  writer  was  unknown  to  him,  he  sought 


FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR        173 

him  out  and  induced  him  to  write  for  him.  In  this  way, 
George  Fitch  was  found  on  the  Peoria,  IIHnois,  Transcript 
and  introduced  to  his  larger  pubHc  in  the  magazine  and 
book  world  through  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal,  whose 
editor  he  believed  he  had  "most  unmercifully  roasted"; 
— but  he  had  done  it  so  cleverly  that  the  editor  at  once 
saw  his  possibilities. 

When  all  his  friends  begged  Bok  to  begin  proceedings 
against  the  New  York  Evening  Sun  because  of  the 
libellous  (?)  articles  written  about  him  by  ''The  Woman 
About  Town, "  the  editor  admired  the  style  rather  than 
the  contents,  made  her  acquaintance,  and  secured  her  as 
a  regular  writer:  she  contributed  to  the  magazine  some 
of  the  best  things  published  in  its  pages.  But  she  did 
not  abate  her  opinions  of  Bok  and  his  magazine  in  her 
articles  in  the  newspaper,  and  Bok  did  not  ask  it  of 
her:  he  felt  that  she  had  a  right  to  her  opinions — those 
he  was  not  buying;  but  he  was  eager  to  buy  her  direct 
style  in  treating  subjects  he  knew  no  other  woman 
could  so  effectively  handle. 

And  with  his  own  limited  knowledge  of  the  sex,  he 
needed,  and  none  knew  it  better  than  did  he,  the  ablest 
women  he  could  obtain  to  help  him  realize  his  ideals. 
Their  personal  opinions  of  him  did  not  matter  so  long 
as  he  could  command  their  best  work.  Sooner  or  later, 
when  his  purposes  were  better  understood,  they  might 
alter  those  opinions.  For  that  he  could  afford  to  wait. 
But  he  could  not  wait  to  get  their  work. 

By  this  time  the  editor  had  come  to  see  that  the  power 
of  a  magazine  might  lie  more  securely  behind  the 
printed  page  than  in  it.     He  had  begun  to  accustom  his 


174   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

readers  to  writing  to  his  editors  upon  all  conceivable 
problems. 

This  he  decided  to  encourage.  He  employed  an  ex- 
pert in  each  line  of  feminine  endeavor,  upon  the  distinct 
understanding  that  the  most  scrupulous  attention  should 
be  given  to  her  correspondence:  that  every  letter,  no 
matter  how  inconsequential,  should  be  answered  quickly, 
fully,  and  courteously,  with  the  questioner  always  en- 
couraged to  come  again  if  any  problem  of  whatever  na- 
ture came  to  her.  He  told  his  editors  that  ignorance 
on  any  question  was  a  misfortune,  not  a  crime;  and  he 
wished  their  correspondence  treated  in  the  most  courte- 
ous and  helpful  spirit. 

Step  by  step,  the  editor  built  up  this  service  behind  the 
magazine  until  he  had  a  staff  of  thirty-five  editors  on 
the  monthly  pay-roll;  in  each  issue,  he  proclaimed  the 
willingness  of  these  editors  to  answer  immediately  any 
questions  by  mail,  he  encouraged  and  cajoled  his  readers 
to  form  the  habit  of  looking  upon  his  magazine  as  a 
great  clearing-house  of  information.  Before  long,  the 
letters  streamed  in  by  the  tens  of  thousands  during  a 
year.  The  editor  still  encouraged,  and  the  total  ran 
into  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  until  during  the  last 
year,  before  the  service  was  finally  stopped  by  the 
Great  War  of  191 7-18,  the  yearly  correspondence  totalled 
nearly  a  million  letters. 

The  work  of  some  of  these  editors  never  reached  the 
printed  page,  and  yet  was  vastly  more  important  than 
any  pubhshed  matter  could  possibly  be.  Out  of  the 
work  of  Ruth  Ashmore,  for  instance,  there  grew  a  class 
of  cases  of  the  most  confidential  nature.     These  cases. 


FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR        175 

distributed  all  over  the  country,  called  for  special  in- 
vestigation and  personal  contact.  Bok  selected  Mrs. 
Lyman  Abbott  for  this  piece  of  delicate  work,  and, 
through  the  wide  acquaintance  of  her  husband,  she  was 
enabled  to  reach,  personally,  every  case  in  every  locality, 
and  bring  personal  help  to  bear  on  it.  These  cases 
mounted  into  the  hundreds,  and  the  good  accomplished 
through  this  quiet  channel  cannot  be  overestimated. 

The  lack  of  opportunity  for  an  education  in  Bok's 
own  life  led  him  to  cast  about  for  some  plan  whereby 
an  education  might  be  obtained  without  expense  by  any 
one  who  desired.  He  finally  hit  upon  the  simple  plan 
of  substituting  free  scholarships  for  the  premiums  then 
so  frequently  offered  by  periodicals  for  subscriptions 
secured.  Free  musical  education  at  the  leading  con- 
servatories was  first  offered  to  any  girl  who  would  secure 
a  certain  number  of  subscriptions  to  The  Ladies^  Home 
Journal,  the  complete  offer  being  a  year's  free  tuition, 
with  free  room,  free  board,  free  piano  in  her  own  room, 
and  all  travelling  expenses  paid.  The  plan  was  an  im- 
mediate success:  the  solicitation  of  a  subscription  by  a 
girl  desirous  of  educating  herself  made  an  irresistible 
appeal. 

This  plan  was  soon  extended,  so  as  to  include  all  the 
girls'  colleges,  and  finally  all  the  men's  colleges,  so  that 
a  free  education  might  be  possible  at  any  educational 
institution.  So  comprehensive  it  became  that  to  the 
close  of  1 91 9,  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  free  scholarships  had  been  awarded.  The  plan  has 
now  been  in  operation  long  enough  to  have  produced 
some  of  the  leading  singers  and  instrumental  artists  of 


176   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  day,  whose  names  are  familiar  to  all,  as  well  as  in- 
structors in  colleges  and  scores  of  teachers;  and  to  have 
sent  several  score  of  men  into  conspicuous  positions  in 
the  business  and  professional  world. 

Edward  Bok  has  always  felt  that  but  for  his  own  in- 
ability to  secure  an  education,  and  his  consequent  de- 
sire for  self-improvement,  the  realization  of  the  need  in 
others  might  not  have  been  so  strongly  felt  by  him,  and 
that  his  plan  whereby  thousands  of  others  were  bene- 
fited might  never  have  been  realized. 

The  editor's  correspondence  was  revealing,  among 
other  deficiencies,  the  wide-spread  unpreparedness  of  the 
average  American  girl  for  motherhood,  and  her  desperate 
ignorance  when  a  new  life  was  given  her.  On  the  theory 
that  with  the  realization  of  a  vital  need  there  is  always 
the  person  to  meet  it,  Bok  consulted  the  authorities  of 
the  Babies'  Hospital  of  New  York,  and  found  Doctor 
Emmet  Holt's  house  physician.  Doctor  Emelyn  L.  Cool- 
idge.  To  the  authorities  in  the  world  of  babies,  Bok's 
discovery  was,  of  course,  a  known  and  serious  fact. 

Doctor  CooUdge  proposed  that  the  magazine  create  a 
department  of  questions  and  answers  devoted  to  the 
problems  of  young  mothers.  This  was  done,  and  from 
the  publication  of  the  first  issue  the  questions  began  to 
come  in.  Within  five  years  the  department  had  grown 
to  such  proportions  that  Doctor  Coolidge  proposed  a 
plan  whereby  mothers  might  be  instructed,  by  mail,  in 
the  rearing  of  babies — in  their  general  care,  their  feeding, 
and  the  complete  hygiene  of  the  nursery. 

Bok  had  already  learned,  in  his  editorial  experience, 
carefully  to  weigh  a  woman's  instinct  against  a  man's 


FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR        177 

judgment,  but  the  idea  of  raising  babies  by  mail  floored 
him.  He  reasoned,  however,  that  a  woman,  and  more 
particularly  one  who  had  been  in  a  babies'  hospital  for 
years,  knew  more  about  babies  than  he  could  possibly 
know.  He  consulted  baby-specialists  in  New  York 
and  Philadelphia,  and,  with  one  accord,  they  declared 
the  plan  not  only  absolutely  impracticable  but  positively 
dangerous.  Bok's  confidence  in  woman's  instinct,  how- 
ever, persisted,  and  he  asked  Doctor  Coolidge  to  map 
out  a  plan. 

This  called  for  the  services  of  two  physicians:  Miss 
Marianna  Wheeler,  for  many  years  superintendent  of 
the  Babies'  Hospital,  was  to  look  after  the  prospective 
mother  before  the  baby's  birth;  and  Doctor  Coohdge, 
when  the  baby  was  born,  would  immediately  send  to 
the  young  mother  a  printed  list  of  comprehensive 
questions,  which,  when  answered,  would  be  immediately 
followed  by  a  full  set  of  directions  as  to  the  care  of  the 
child,  including  carefully  prepared  food  formulae.  At 
the  end  of  the  first  month,  another  set  of  questions 
was  to  be  forwarded  for  answer  by  the  mother,  and  this 
monthly  service  was  to  be  continued  until  the  child 
reached  the  age  of  two  years.  The  contact  with  the 
mother  would  then  become  intermittent,  dependent 
upon  the  condition  of  mother  and  child.  All  the  direc- 
tions and  formulae  were  to  be  used  only  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  mother's  attendant  physician,  so  that  the 
fullest  cooperation  might  be  established  between  the 
physician  on  the  case  and  the  advisory  department  of 
the  magazine. 

Despite  advice  to  the  contrary,  Bok  decided,  after 


178   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

consulting  a  number  of  mothers,  to  establish  the  system. 
It  was  understood  that  the  greatest  care  was  to  be  exer- 
cised :  the  most  expert  advice,  if  needed,  was  to  be  sought 
and  given,  and  the  thousands  of  cases  at  the  Babies' 
Hospital  were  to  be  laid  under  contribution. 

There  was  then  begun  a  magazine  department  which 
was  to  be  classed  among  the  most  clear-cut  pieces  of  suc- 
cessful work  achieved  by  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal. 

Step  by  step,  the  new  departure  won  its  way,  and  was 
welcomed  eagerly  by  thousands  of  young  mothers.  It 
was  not  long  before  the  warmest  commendation  from 
physicians  all  over  the  country  was  received.  Prompt- 
ness of  response  and  thoroughness  of  diagnosis  were,  of 
course,  the  keynotes  of  the  service :  where  the  cases  were 
urgent,  the  special  delivery  post  and,  later,  the  night- 
letter  telegraph  service  were  used. 

The  plan  is  now  in  its  eleventh  year  of  successful 
operation.  Some  idea  of  the  enormous  extent  of  its 
service  can  be  gathered  from  the  amazing  figures  that, 
at  the  close  of  the  tenth  year,  show  over  forty  thousand 
prospective  mothers  have  been  advised,  while  the  num- 
ber of  babies  actually  ''raised"  by  Doctor  CooHdge  ap- 
proaches eighty  thousand.  Fully  ninety-five  of  every 
hundred  of  these  babies  registered  have  remained  under 
the  monthly  letter-care  of  Doctor  Coolidge  until  their 
first  year,  when  the  mothers  receive  a  diet  list  which 
has  proved  so  effective  for  future  guidance  that  many 
mothers  cease  to  report  regularly.  Eighty-five  out  of 
every  hundred  babies  have  remained  in  the  registry 
until  their  graduation  at  the  age  of  two.  Over  eight 
large  sets  of  library  drawers  are  required  for  the  records 


FIRST  YEARS  AS  A  WOMAN'S  EDITOR        179 

of  the  babies  always  under  the  supervision  of  the  reg- 
istry. 

Scores  of  physicians  who  vigorously  opposed  the  work 
at  the  start  have  amended  their  opinions  and  now  not 
only  give  their  enthusiastic  endorsement,  but  have 
adopted  Doctor  Coolidge's  food  formulae  for  their 
private  and  hospital  cases. 

It  was  this  comprehensive  personal  service,  built  up 
back  of  the  magazine  from  the  start,  that  gave  the  peri- 
odical so  firm  and  unique  a  hold  on  its  cHentele.  It  was 
not  the  printed  word  that  was  its  chief  power:  scores 
of  editors  who  have  tried  to  study  and  diagnose  the  ap- 
peal of  the  magazine  from  the  printed  page,  have  re- 
mained baffled  at  the  remarkable  confidence  elicited 
from  its  readers.  They  never  looked  back  of  the  maga- 
zine, and  therefore  failed  to  discover  its  secret.  Bok 
went  through  three  financial  panics  with  the  magazine, 
and  while  other  periodicals  severely  suffered  from  di- 
minished circulation  at  such  times.  The  Ladies^  Home 
Journal  always  held  its  own.  Thousands  of  women  had 
been  directly  helped  by  the  magazine;  it  had  not  re- 
mained an  inanimate  printed  thing,  but  had  become  a 
vital  need  in  the  personal  lives  of  its  readers. 

So  intimate  had  become  this  relation,  so  efi&cient  was 
the  service  rendered,  that  its  readers  could  not  be  pried 
loose  from  it;  where  women  were  willing  and  ready, 
when  the  domestic  pinch  came,  to  let  go  of  other  read- 
ing matter,  they  explained  to  their  husbands  or  fathers 
that  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  was  a  necessity — they  did 
not  feel  that  they  could  do  without  it.  The  very  quality 
for  which  the  magazine  had  been  held  up  to  ridicule  by 


i8o  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  unknowing  and  unthinking  had  become,  with  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  women,  its  source  of  power  and 
the  bulwark  of  its  success. 

Bok  was  beginning  to  realize  the  vision  which  had 
lured  him  from  New  York :  that  of  putting  into  the  field 
of  American  magazines  a  periodical  that  should  become 
such  a  clearing-house  as  virtually  to  make  it  an  institu- 
tion. 

He  felt  that,  for  the  present  at  least,  he  had  suffi- 
ciently established  the  personal  contact  with  his  readers 
through  the  more  intimate  departments,  and  decided 
to  devote  his  efforts  to  the  literary  features  of  the  maga- 
zine. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
EUGENE  FIELD'S  PRACTICAL  JOKES 

Eugene  Field  was  one  of  Edward  Bok's  close  friends 
and  also  his  despair,  as  was  likely  to  be  the  case  with 
those  who  were  intimate  with  the  Western  poet.  One 
day  Field  said  to  Bok:  "I  am  going  to  make  you  the 
most  widely  paragraphed  man  in  America."  The  edi- 
tor passied  the  remark  over,  but  he  was  to  recall  it  often 
as  his  friend  set  out  to  make  his  boast  good. 

The  fact  that  Bok  was  unmarried  and  the  editor  of  a 
woman's  magazine  appealed  strongly  to  Field's  sense  of 
humor.  He  knew  the  editor's  opposition  to  patent 
medicines,  and  so  he  decided  to  join  the  two  facts  in  a 
paragraph,  put  on  the  wire  at  Chicago,  to  the  effect  that 
the  editor  was  engaged  to  be  married  to  Miss  Lavinia 
Pinkham,  the  granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Lydia  Pinkham, 
of  patent-medicine  fame.  The  paragraph  carefully  de- 
scribed Miss  Pinkham,  the  school  where  she  had  been 
educated,  her  talents,  her  wealth,  etc.  Field  was  wise 
enough  to  put  the  paragraph  not  in  his  own  column  in 
the  Chicago  News,  lest  it  be  considered  in  the  Hght  of 
one  of  his  practical  jokes,  but  on  the  news  page  of  the 
paper,  and  he  had  it  put  on  the  Associated  Press  wire. 

He  followed  this  up  a  few  days  later  with  a  paragraph 
announcing  Bok's  arrival  at  a  Boston  hotel.  Then  came 
a  paragraph  saying  that  Miss  Pinkham  was  sailing  for 

i8i 


i82   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Paris  to  buy  her  trousseau.  The  paragraphs  were 
worded  in  the  most  matter-of-fact  manner,  and  com- 
pletely fooled  the  newspapers,  even  those  of  Boston. 
Field  was  deUghted  at  the  success  of  his  joke,  and  the 
fact  that  Bok  was  in  despair  over  the  letters  that  poured 
in  upon  him  added  to  Field's  delight. 

He  now  asked  Bok  to  come  to  Chicago.  "I  want  you 
to  know  some  of  my  cronies,"  he  wrote.  "Julia  [his 
wife]  is  away,  so  we  will  shift  for  ourselves."  Bok 
arrived  in  Chicago  one  Sunday  afternoon,  and  was  to 
dine  at  Field's  house  that  evening.  He  found  a  jolly 
company:  James  Whitcomb  Riley,  Sol  Smith  Russell 
the  actor,  Opie  Read,  and  a  number  of  Chicago's  hterary 
men. 

When  seven  o'clock  came,  some  one  suggested  to 
Field  that  something  to  eat  might  not  be  amiss. 

"Shortly,"  answered  the  poet.  "Wife  is  out;  cook 
is  new,  and  dinner  will  be  a  Httle  late.  Be  patient." 
But  at  eight  o'clock  there  was  still  no  dinner.  Riley 
began  to  grow  suspicious  and  slipped  down-stairs.  He 
found  no  one  in  the  kitchen  and  the  range  cold.  He 
came  back  and  reported.  "Nonsense,"  said  Field.  "It 
can't  be."  All  went  down-stairs  to  find  out  the  truth. 
"Let's  get  supper  ourselves,"  suggested  Russell.  Then 
it  was  discovered  that  not  a  morsel  of  food  was  to  be 
found  in  the  refrigerator,  closet,  or  cellar.  "That's  a 
joke  on  us,"  said  Field.  "Julia  has  left  us  without  a 
cnmib  to  eat." 

It  was  then  nine  o'clock.  Riley  and  Bok  held  a  coun- 
cil of  war  and  decided  to  sHp  out  and  buy  some  food, 
only  to  find  that  the  front,  basement,  and  back  doors 


EUGENE  FIELD'S  PRACTICAL  JOKES  183 

were  locked  and  the  keys  missing !  Field  was  very 
sober.  "Thorough  woman,  that  wife  of  mine,"  he  com- 
mented.    But  his  friends  knew  better. 

Finally,  the  Hoosier  poet  and  the  Philadelphia  editor 
crawled  through  one  of  the  basement  windows  and 
started  on  a  foraging  expedition.  Of  course,  Field  lived 
in  a  residential  section  where  there  were  few  stores,  and 
on  Sunday  these  were  closed.  There  was  nothing  to  do 
but  to  board  a  down-town  car.  Finally  they  found  a 
delicatessen  shop  open,  and  the  two  hungry  men  amazed 
the  proprietor  by  nearly  buying  out  his  stock. 

It  was  after  ten  o'clock  when  Riley  and  Bok  got  back 
to  the  house  with  their  load  of  provisions  to  find  every 
door  locked,  every  curtain  drawn,  and  the  bolt  sprung 
on  every  window.  Only  the  cellar  grating  remained, 
and  through  this  the  two  dropped  their  bundles  and 
themselves,  and  appeared  in  the  dining-room,  dirty 
and  dishevelled,  to  find  the  party  at  table  enjoying  a 
supper  which  Field  had  carefully  hidden  and  brought 
out  when  they  had  left  the  house. 

Riley,  cold  and  hungry,  and  before  this  time  the  vic- 
tim of  Field's  practical  jokes,  was  not  in  a  merry  humor 
and  began  to  recite  paraphrases  of  Field's  poems. 
Field  retorted  by  paraphrasing  Riley's  poems,  and 
mimicking  the  marked  characteristics  of  Riley's  speech. 
This  started  Sol  Smith  Russell,  who  mimicked  both. 
The  fun  grew  fast  and  furious,  the  entire  company  now 
took  part,  Mrs.  Field's  dresses  were  laid  under  contri- 
bution, and  Field,  Russell,  and  Riley  gave  an  impromptu 
play.  And  it  was  upon  this  scene  that  Mrs.  Field,  after 
a  continuous  ringing  of  the  door-bell  and  nearly  battering 


1 84   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

down  the  door,  appeared  at  seven  o'clock  the  next 
morning ! 

It  was  fortunate  that  Eugene  Field  had  a  patient  wife; 
she  needed  every  ounce  of  patience  that  she  could  com- 
mand. And  no  one  realized  this  more  keenly  than  did 
her  husband.  He  once  told  of  a  dream  he  had  which 
illustrated  the  endurance  of  his  wife. 

"I  thought,"  said  Field,  "that  I  had  died  and  gone 
to  heaven.  I  had  some  difficulty  in  getting  past  St. 
Peter,  who  regarded  me  with  doubt  and  suspicion,  and 
examined  my  records  closely,  but  finally  permitted  me 
to  enter  the  pearly  gates.  As  I  walked  up  the  street  of 
the  heavenly  city,  I  saw  a  venerable  old  man  with  long 
gray  hair  and  flowing  beard.  His  benignant  face  en- 
couraged me  to  address  him.  'I  have  just  arrived  and 
I  am  entirely  unacquainted,'  I  said.  'May  I  ask  your 
name  ? ' 

"'My  name,'  he  replied,  'is  Job.' 

"'Indeed,'  I  exclaimed,  'are  you  that  Job  whom  we 
were  taught  to  revere  as  the  most  patient  being  in  the 
world  ? ' 

'"The  same,'  he  said,  with  a  shadow  of  hesitation; 
'I  did  have  quite  a  reputation  for  patience  once,  but  I 
hear  that  there  is  a  woman  now  on  earth,  in  Chicago,  who 
has  suffered  more  than  I  ever  did,  and  she  has  endured 
it  with  great  resignation.' 

"'Why,'  said  I,  'that  is  curious.  I  am  just  from 
earth,  and  from  Chicago,  and  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  heard  of  her  case.     What  is  her  name  ? ' 

"'Mrs.  Eugene  Field,'  was  the  reply. 

"Just  then  I  awoke,"  ended  Field. 


EUGENE  FIELD'S  PRACTICAL  JOKES  185 

The  success  of  Field's  paragraph  engaging  Bok  to 
Miss  Pinkham  stimulated  the  poet  to  greater  effort. 
Bok  had  gone  to  Europe;  Field,  having  found  out  the 
date  of  his  probable  return,  just  about  when  the  steamer 
was  due,  printed  an  interview  with  the  editor  "at 
quarantine"  which  sounded  so  plausible  that  even  the 
men  in  Bok's  office  in  Philadelphia  were  fooled  and  pre- 
pared for  his  arrival.  The  interview  recounted,  in 
detail,  the  changes  in  women's  fashions  in  Paris,  and  so 
plausible  had  Field  made  it,  based  upon  information 
obtained  at  Marshall  Field's,  that  even  the  fashion 
papers  copied  it. 

All  this  delighted  Field  beyond  measure.  Bok  begged 
him  to  desist;  but  Field  answered  by  printing  an  item 
to  the  effect  that  there  was  the  highest  authority  for 
denying  "the  reports  industriously  circulated  some 
time  ago  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  Bok  was  engaged  to  be 
married  to  a  New  England  young  lady,  whereas,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  is  no  violation  of  friendly  confidence 
that  makes  it  possible  to  announce  that  the  Philadelphia 
editor  is  engaged  to  Mrs.  Frank  Leslie,  of  New  York." 

It  so  happened  that  Field  put  this  new  paragraph  on 
the  wire  just  about  the  time  that  Bok's  actual  engage- 
ment was  announced.  Field  was  now  deeply  contrite, 
and  sincerely  promised  Bok  and  his  fiancee  to  reform. 
"I'm  through,  you  mooning,  spooning  calf,  you,"  he 
wrote  Bok,  and  his  friend  believed  him,  only  to  receive 
a  telegram  the  next  day  from  Mrs.  Field  warning  him 
that  "Gene  is  planning  a  series  of  telephonic  conversa- 
tions with  you  and  Miss  Curtis  at  coUege  that  I  think 
should  not  be  printed."    Bok  knew  it  was  of  no  use 


1 86  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

trying  to  curb  Field's  industry,  and  so  he  wired  the 
editor  of  the  Chicago  News  for  his  cooperation.  Field, 
now  checked,  asked  Bok  and  his  fiancee  and  the  parents 
of  both  to  come  to  Chicago,  be  his  guests  for  the  World's 
Fair,  and  "let  me  make  amends." 

It  was  a  happy  visit.  Field  was  all  kindness,  and,  of 
course,  the  entire  party  was  charmed  by  his  personality. 
But  the  boy  in  him  could  not  be  repressed.  He  had  kept 
it  down  all  through  the  visit.  '*No,  not  a  joke — cross 
my  heart,"  he  would  say,  and  then  he  invited  the  party 
to  lunch  with  him  on  their  way  to  the  train  when  they 
were  leaving  for  home.  "But  we  shall  be  in  our  trav- 
elling clothes,  not  dressed  for  a  luncheon,"  protested 
the  women.  It  was  an  unfortunate  protest,  for  it  gave 
Field  an  idea!  "Oh,"  he  assured  them,  "just  a  good- 
bye luncheon  at  the  club;  just  you  folks  and  Julia  and 
me."  They  believed  him,  only  to  find  upon  their  ar- 
rival at  the  club  an  assembly  of  over  sixty  guests  at  one 
of  the  most  elaborate  luncheons  ever  served  in  Chicago, 
with  each  woman  guest  carefully  enjoined  by  Field, 
in  his  invitation,  to  "put  on  her  prettiest  and  most 
elaborate  costume  in  order  to  dress  up  the  table !" 

One  day  Field  came  to  Philadelphia  to  give  a  reading 
in  Camden  in  conjunction  with  George  W.  Cable.  It 
chanced  that  his  friend,  Francis  Wilson,  was  opening 
that  same  evening  in  Philadelphia  in  a  new  comic  opera 
which  Field  had  not  seen.  He  immediately  refused  to 
give  his  reading,  and  insisted  upon  going  to  the  theatre. 
The  combined  efforts  of  his  manager,  Wilson,  Mr. 
Cable,  and  his  friends  finally  persuaded  him  to  keep  his 
engagement  and  join  in  a  double-box  party  later  at  the 


EUGENE  FIELD'S  PRACTICAL  JOKES  187 

theatre.  To  make  sure  that  he  would  keep  his  lecture 
appointment,  Bok  decided  to  go  to  Camden  with  him. 
Field  and  Cable  were  to  appear  alternately. 

Field  went  on  for  his  first  number;  and  when  he  came 
off,  he  turned  to  Bok  and  said:  "No  use,  Bok,  I'm  a  sick 
man.  I  must  go  home.  Cable  can  see  this  through," 
and  despite  every  protestation  Field  bundled  himself  into 
his  overcoat  and  made  for  his  carriage.  "Sick,  Bok, 
really  sick,"  he  muttered  as  they  rode  along.  Then 
seeing  a  fruit-stand  he  said:  "Buy  me  a  bag  of  oranges, 
like  a  good  fellow.     They'll  do  me  good." 

When  Philadelphia  was  reached,  he  suggested:  "Do 
you  know  I  think  it  would  do  me  good  to  go  and  see 
Frank  in  the  new  play?  Tell  the  driver  to  go  to  the 
theatre  like  a  good  boy."  Of  course,  that  had  been  his 
intent  all  along!  When  the  theatre  was  reached  he 
insisted  upon  taking  the  oranges  with  him.  "They'll 
steal  'em  if  you  leave  'em  there,"  he  said. 

Field  lost  all  traces  of  his  supposed  illness  the  moment 
he  reached  the  box.  Francis  Wilson  was  on  the  stage 
with  Marie  Jansen.  "Isn't  it  beautiful?"  said  Field, 
and  directing  the  attention  of  the  party  to  the  players, 
he  reached  under  his  chair  for  the  bag  of  oranges,  took  one 
out,  and  was  about  to  throw  it  at  Wilson  when  Bok 
caught  his  arm,  took  the  orange  away  from  him,  and 
grabbed  the  bag.  Field  never  forgave  Bok  for  this  act 
of  watchfulness.  "Treason,"  he  hissed — "going  back 
on  a  friend." 

The  one  object  of  Field's  ambition  was  to  achieve  the 
distinction  of  so  "fussing"  Francis  Wilson  that  he 
would  be  compelled  to  ring  down  the  curtain.     He  had 


1 88   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

tried  every  conceivable  trick:  had  walked  on  the  stage 
in  one  of  Wilson's  scenes;  had  started  a  quarrel  with  an 
usher  in  the  audience — everything  that  ingenuity  could 
conceive  he  had  practised  on  his  friend.  Bok  had  known 
this  penchant  of  Field's,  and  when  he  insisted  on  taking 
the  bag  of  oranges  into  the  theatre,  Field's  purpose  was 
evident ! 

One  day  Bok  received  a  wire  from  Field:  "City  of 
New  Orleans  purposing  give  me  largest  pubUc  reception 
on  sixth  ever  given  an  author.  Event  of  unusual 
quality.  Mayor  and  city  officials  peculiarly  desirous 
of  having  you  introduce  me  to  vast  audience  they  pro- 
pose to  have.  Hate  to  ask  you  to  travel  so  far,  but 
would  be  great  favor  to  me.  Wire  answer,"  Bok 
wired  back  his  willingness  to  travel  to  New  Orleans  and 
oblige  his  friend.  It  occurred  to  Bok,  however,  to  write 
to  a  friend  in  New  Orleans  and  ask  the  particulars.  Of 
course,  there  was  never  any  thought  of  Field  going  to 
New  Orleans  or  of  any  reception.  Bok  waited  for  further 
advices,  and  a  long  letter  followed  from  Field  giving  him 
a  glowing  picture  of  the  reception  planned.  Bok  sent 
a  message  to  his  New  Orleans  friend  to  be  telegraphed 
from  New  Orleans  on  the  sixth:  ''Find  whole  thing  to 
be  a  fake.  Nice  job  to  put  over  on  me.  Bok."  Field 
was  overjoyed  at  the  apparent  success  of  his  joke  and 
gleefully  told  his  Chicago  friends  all  about  it — until 
he  found  out  that  the  joke  had  been  on  him.  ''Durned 
dirty,  I  call  it,"  he  wrote  Bok. 

It  was  a  lively  friendship  that  Eugene  Field  gave  to 
Edward  Bok,  full  of  anxieties  and  of  continuous  fore- 
bodings, but  it  was  worth  all  that  it  cost  in  mental  per- 


EUGENE  FIELD'S  PRACTICAL  JOKES  189 

turbation.  No  rarer  friend  ever  lived:  in  his  serious 
moments  he  gave  one  a  quality  of  unforgetable  friend- 
ship that  remains  a  precious  memory.  But  his  desire 
for  practical  jokes  was  uncontrollable:  it  meant  being 
constantly  on  one's  guard,  and  even  then  the  pranks 
could  not  always  be  thwarted ! 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE 

The  newspaper  paragraphers  were  now  having  a  de- 
lightful time  with  Edward  Bok  and  his  woman's  maga- 
zine, and  he  was  having  a  delightful  time  with  them. 
The  editor's  publicity  sense  made  him  realize  how  valua- 
ble for  his  purposes  was  all  this  free  advertising.  The 
paragraphers  believed,  in  their  hearts,  that  they  were 
annoying  the  young  editor;  they  tried  to  draw  his  fire 
through  their  articles.  But  he  kept  quiet,  put  his 
tongue  in  his  cheek,  and  determined  to  give  them  some 
choice  morsels  for  their  wit. 

He  conceived  the  idea  of  making  familiar  to  the  public 
the  women  who  were  back  of  the  successful  men  of  the 
day.  He  felt  sure  that  his  readers  wanted  to  know 
about  these  women.  But  to  attract  his  newspaper 
friends  he  labelled  the  series,  ''Unknown  Wives  of  Weil- 
Known  Men"  and  "Clever  Daughters  of  Clever  Men." 

The  alliterative  titles  at  once  attracted  the  para- 
graphers; they  fell  upon  them  like  hungry  trout,  and 
a  perfect  fusillade  of  paragraphs  began.  This  is  exactly 
what  the  editor  wanted;  and  he  followed  these  two 
series  immediately  by  inducing  the  daughter  of  Charles 
Dickens  to  write  of  "My  Father  as  I  Knew  Him,"  and 
Mrs.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  of  "Mr.  Beecher  as  I  Knew 

Him."    Bok  now  felt  that  he  had  given  the  newspapers 

190 


BUILDING   UP  A  MAGAZINE  191 

enough  ammunition  to  last  for  some  time;  and  he  turned 
his  attention  to  building  up  a  more  permanent  basis  for 
his  magazine. 

The  two  authors  of  that  day  who  commanded  more 
attention  than  any  others  were  William  Dean  Howells 
and  Rudyard  Kipling.  Bok  knew  that  these  two  would 
give  to  his  magazine  the  Uterary  quality  that  it  needed, 
and  so  he  laid  them  both  under  contribution.  He  bought 
Mr.  Howells's  new  novel,  "The  Coast  of  Bohemia," 
and  arranged  that  Kipling's  new  novelette  upon  which 
he  was  working  should  come  to  the  magazine.  Neither 
the  public  nor  the  magazine  editors  had  expected  Bok 
to  break  out  along  these  more  permanent  lines,  and 
magazine  pubHshers  began  to  realize  that  a  new  com- 
petitor had  sprung  up  in  Philadelphia.  Bok  knew  they 
would  feel  this;  so  before  he  announced  Mr.  Howells's 
new  novel,  he  contracted  with  the  noveHst  to  foUow  this 
with  his  autobiography.  This  surprised  the  editors  of 
the  older  magazines,  for  they  realized  that  the  Phila- 
delphia editor  had  completely  tied  up  the  leading  novelist 
of  the  day  for  his  next  two  years'  output. 

Meanwhile,  in  order  that  the  newspapers  might  be  well 
supphed  with  barbs  for  their  shafts,  he  published  an 
entire  number  of  his  magazine  written  by  famous  daugh- 
ters of  famous  men.  This  unique  issue  presented  con- 
tributions by  the  daughters  of  Charles  Dickens,  Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne,  President  Harrison,  Horace  Greeley, 
William  M.  Thackeray,  William  Dean  Howells,  General 
Sherman,  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Jefferson  Davis,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, and  a  score  of  others.  This  issue  simply  filled  the 
paragraphers  with  glee.     Then  once  more  Bok  turned  to 


192    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

material  calculated  to  cement  the  foundation  for  a  more 
permanent  structure. 

He  noted,  eariy  in  its  progress,  the  gathering  strength 
of  the  drift  toward  woman  suffrage,  and  realized  that 
the  American  woman  was  not  prepared,  in  her  knowl- 
edge of  her  country,  to  exercise  the  privilege  of  the  bal- 
lot. Bok  determined  to  supply  the  deficiency  to  his 
readers,  and  concluded  to  put  under  contract  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Benjamin  Harrison,  the 
moment  he  left  office,  to  write  a  series  of  articles  explain- 
ing the  United  States.  No  man  knew  this  subject 
better  than  the  President;  none  could  write  better;  and 
none  would  attract  such  general  attention  to  his  maga- 
zine, reasoned  Bok.  He  sought  the  President,  talked  it 
over  with  him,  and  found  him  favorable  to  the  idea. 
But  the  President  was  in  doubt  at  that  time  whether 
he  would  be  a  candidate  for  another  term,  and  frankly 
told  Bok  that  he  would  be  taking  too  much  risk  to  wait 
for  him.  He  suggested  that  the  editor  try  to  prevail 
upon  his  then  secretary  of  state,  James  G.  Blaine,  to 
undertake  the  series,  and  offered  to  see  Mr.  Blaine  and 
induce  him  to  a  favorable  consideration.  Bok  acquiesced, 
and  a  few  days  afterward  received  from  Mr.  Blaine  a 
request  to  come  to  Washington. 

Bok  had  had  a  previous  experience  with  Mr.  Blaine 
which  had  impressed  him  to  an  unusual  degree.  Many 
years  before,  he  had  called  upon  him  at  his  hotel  in  New 
York,  seeking  his  autograph,  had  been  received,  and  as 
the  statesman  was  writing  his  signature  he  said:  "Your 
name  is  a  famihar  one  to  me.  I  have  had  corres- 
pondence with   an   Edward   Bok  who  is  secretary  of 


BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE  193 

state  for  the  Transvaal  Republic.  Are  you  related  to 
him?" 

Bok  explained  that  this  was  his  uncle,  and  that  he 
was  named  for  him. 

Years  afterward  Bok  happened  to  be  at  a  public 
meeting  where  Mr.  Blaine  was  speaking,  and  the  states- 
man, seeing  him,  immediately  called  him  by  name. 
Bok  knew  of  the  reputed  marvels  of  Mr.  Blaine's  mem- 
ory, but  this  proof  of  it  amazed  him. 

"It  is  simply  inconceivable,  Mr.  Blaine,"  said  Bok, 
"that  you  should  remember  my  name  after  all  these 
years." 

"Not  at  all,  my  boy,"  returned  Mr.  Blaine.  "Mem- 
orizing is  simply  association.  You  associate  a  fact  or 
an  incident  with  a  name  and  you  remember  the  name. 
It  never  leaves  you.  The  moment  I  saw  you  I  remem- 
bered you  told  me  that  your  uncle  was  secretary  of 
state  for  the  Transvaal.  That  at  once  brought  your 
name  to  me.    You  see  how  simple  a  trick  it  is." 

But  Bok  did  not  see,  since  remembering  the  incident 
was  to  him  an  even  greater  feat  of  memory  than  recall- 
ing the  name.  It  was  a  case  of  having  to  remember  two 
things  instead  of  one. 

At  all  events,  Bok  was  no  stranger  to  James  G.  Blaine 
when  he  called  upon  him  at  his  Lafayette  Place  home  in 
Washington. 

"You've  gone  ahead  in  the  world  some  since  I  last 
saw  you,"  was  the  statesman's  greeting.  "It  seems  to 
go  with  the  name." 

This  naturally  broke  the  ice  for  the  editor  at  once. 

"Let's  go  to  my  library  where  we  can  talk  quietly. 


194  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

What  train  are  you  making  back  to  Philadelphia,  by 
the  way  ?  " 

"The  four,  if  I  can,"  replied  Bok. 

"Excuse  me  a  moment,"  returned  Mr.  Blaine,  and 
when  he  came  back  to  the  room,  he  said:  "Now  let's 
talk  over  this  interesting  proposition  that  the  President 
has  told  me  about." 

The  two  discussed  the  matter  and  completed  arrange- 
ments whereby  Mr.  Blaine  was  to  undertake  the  work. 
Toward  the  latter  end  of  the  talk,  Bok  had  covertl> — as 
he  thought — looked  at  his  watch  to  keep  track  of  his 
train. 

"It's  all  right  about  that  train,"  came  from  Mr. 
Blaine,  with  his  back  toward  Bok,  writing  some  data  of 
the  talk  at  his  desk.    "You'll  make  it  all  right." 

Bok  wondered  how  he  should,  as  it  then  lacked  only 
seventeen  minutes  of  four.  But  as  Mr.  Blaine  reached 
the  front  door,  he  said  to  the  editor:  "My  carriage  is 
waiting  at  the  curb  to  take  you  to  the  station,  and  the 
coachman  has  your  seat  in  the  parlor  car." 

And  with  this  knightly  courtesy,  Mr.  Blaine  shook 
hands  with  Bok,  who  was  never  again  to  see  him,  nor 
was  the  contract  ever  to  be  fulfilled.  For  early  in  1893 
Mr.  Blaine  passed  away  without  having  begun  the 
work. 

Again  Bok  turned  to  the  President,  and  explained  to 
him  that,  for  some  reason  or  other,  the  way  seemed  to 
point  to  him  to  write  the  articles  himself.  By  that 
time  President  Harrison  had  decided  that  he  would  not 
succeed  himself.  Accordingly  he  entered  into  an  agree- 
ment with  the  editor  to  begin  to  write  the  articles  im- 


BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE  195 

mediately  upon  his  retirement  from  office.  And  the  day 
after  Inauguration  Day  every  newspaper  contained  an 
Associated  Press  despatch  announcing  the  former  Presi- 
dent's contract  with  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal. 

Shortly  afterward,  Benjamin  Harrison's  articles  on 
"This  Country  of  Ours"  successfully  appeared  in  the 
magazine. 

During  Bok's  negotiations  with  President  Harrison 
in  connection  with  his  series  of  articles,  he  was  called 
to  the  White  House  for  a  conference.  It  was  midsum- 
mer. Mrs.  Harrison  was  away  at  the  seashore,  and  the 
President  was  taking  advantage  of  her  absence  by 
working  far  into  the  night. 

The  President,  his  secretary,  and  Bok  sat  down  to 
dinner. 

The  Marine  Band  was  giving  its  weekly  concert  on 
the  green,  and  after  dinner  the  President  suggested  that 
Bok  and  he  adjourn  to  the  ''back  lot"  and  enjoy  the 
music. 

"You  have  a  coat?"  asked  the  President. 

"No,  thank  you,"  Bok  answered.  "I  don't  need 
one. 

"Not  in  other  places,  perhaps,"  he  said,  "but  here 
you  do.  The  dampness  comes  up  from  the  Potomac  at 
nightfall,  and  it's  just  as  well  to  be  careful.  It's  Mrs. 
Harrison's  dictum,"  he  added  smiling.  "Halford,  send 
up  for  one  of  my  light  coats,  will  you,  please?" 

Bok  remarked,  as  he  put  on  the  President's  coat,  that 
this  was  probably  about  as  near  as  he  should  ever  get 
to  the  presidency. 

"Well,    it's   a    question   whether   you   want   to   get 


196   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

nearer  to  it,"  answered  the  President.  He  looked  very 
white  and  tired  in  the  moonHght. 

"Still,"  Bok  said  with  a  smile,  "some  folks  seem  to 
like  it  well  enough  to  wish  to  get  it  a  second  time." 

"True,"  he  answered,  "but  that's  what  pride  will  do 
for  a  man.    Try  one  of  these  cigars." 

A  cigar !  Bok  had  been  taking  his  tobacco  in  smaller 
doses  with  paper  around  them.  He  had  never  smoked 
a  cigar.  StiU,  one  cannot  very  well  refuse  a  presi- 
dential cigar! 

"Thank  you,"  Bok  said  as  he  took  one  from  the  Presi- 
dent's case.  He  looked  at  the  cigar  and  remembered 
all  he  had  read  of  Benjamin  Harrison's  black  cigars. 
This  one  was  black — inky  black — and  big. 

"Allow  me,"  he  heard  the  President  suddenly  say,  as 
he  handed  him  a  blazing  match.  There  was  no  escape. 
The  aroma  was  delicious,  but —  Two  or  three  whifTs 
of  that  cigar,  and  Bok  decided  the  best  thing  to  do  was 
to  let  it  go  out.     He  did. 

"I  have  allowed  you  to  talk  so  much,"  said  the  Presi- 
dent after  a  while,  "that  you  haven't  had  a  chance  to 
smoke.  AUow  me,"  and  another  match  crackled  into 
flame. 

"Thank  you,"  the  editor  said,  as  once  more  he 
hghted  the  cigar,  and  the  fumes  went  clear  up  into  the 
farthest  corner  of  his  brain. 

"Take  a  fresh  cigar,"  said  the  President  after  a 
while.  "That  doesn't  seem  to  bum  well.  You  will  get 
one  hke  that  once  in  a  while,  although  I  am  careful 
about  my  cigars." 

"No,  thanks,  Mr.  President,"  Bok  said  hurriedly. 
"It's  I,  not  the  cigar." 


BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE  197 

"Well,  prove  it  to  me  with  another,"  was  the  quick 
rejoinder,  as  he  held  out  his  case,  and  in  another  min- 
ute a  match  again  crackled.  ''There  is  only  one  thing 
worse  than  a  bad  smoke,  and  that  is  an  office-seeker," 
chuckled  the  President. 

Bok  couldn't  prove  that  the  cigars  were  bad,  naturally. 
So  smoke  that  cigar  he  did,  to  the  bitter  end,  and  it  was 
bitter!  In  fifteen  minutes  his  head  and  stomach  were 
each  whirling  around,  and  no  more  welcome  words  had 
Bok  ever  heard  than  when  the  President  said:  ''Well, 
suppose  we  go  in.  Halford  and  I  have  a  day's  work 
ahead  of  us  yet." 

The  President  went  to  work. 

Bok  went  to  bed.  He  could  not  get  there  quick  enough, 
and  he  didn't — that  is,  not  before  he  had  experienced 
that  same  sensation  of  which  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
wrote:  he  never  could  understand,  he  said,  why  young 
authors  found  so  much  trouble  in  getting  into  the 
magazines,  for  his  first  trip  to  Europe  was  not  a  day  old 
before,  without  even  the  slightest  desire  or  wish  on  his 
part,  he  became  a  contributor  to  the  Atlantic ! 

The  next  day,  and  for  days  after,  Bok  smelled,  tasted, 
and  felt  that  presidential  cigar ! 

A  few  weeks  afterward,  Bok  was  talking  after  dinner 
with  the  President  at  a  hotel  in  New  York,  when  once 
more  the  cigar-case  came  out  and  was  handed  to  Bok. 

"No,  thank  you,  Mr.  President,"  was  the  instant  re- 
ply, as  visions  of  his  night  in  the  White  House  came  back 
to  him.  "I  am  like  the  man  from  the  West  who  was 
willing  to  try  anything  once." 

And  he  told  the  President  the  story  of  the  WTiite 
House  cigar. 


198   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

The  editor  decided  to  follow  General  Harrison's  dis- 
cussion of  American  affairs  by  giving  his  readers  a 
glimpse  of  foreign  pohtics,  and  he  fixed  upon  Mr.  Glad- 
stone as  the  one  figure  abroad  to  write  for  him.  He 
sailed  for  England,  visited  Hawarden  Castle,  and  pro- 
posed to  Mr.  Gladstone  that  he  should  write  a  series  of 
twelve  autobiographical  articles  which  later  could  be 
expanded  into  a  book. 

Bok  offered  fifteen  thousand  dollars  for  the  twelve 
articles — a  goodly  price  in  those  days — and  he  saw  that 
the  idea  and  the  terms  attracted  the  EngUsh  statesman. 
But  he  also  saw  that  the  statesman  was  not  quite  ready. 
He  decided,  therefore,  to  leave  the  matter  with  him, 
and  keep  the  avenue  of  approach  favorably  open  by 
inducing  Mrs.  Gladstone  to  write  for  him.  Bok  knew 
that  Mrs.  Gladstone  had  helped  her  husband  in  his 
Uterary  work,  that  she  was  a  woman  who  had  hved  a 
full-rounded  Hfe,  and  after  a  day's  visit  and  persuasion, 
with  Mr.  Gladstone  as  an  amused  looker-on,  the  editor 
closed  a  contract  with  Mrs.  Gladstone  for  a  series  of 
reminiscent  articles  "From  a  Mother's  Life." 

Some  time  after  Bok  had  sent  the  check  to  Mrs. 
Gladstone,  he  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Gladstone 
expressing  the  opinion  that  his  wife  must  have  written 
with  a  golden  pen,  considering  the  size  of  the  honorarium. 
"But,"  he  added,  "she  is  so  impressed  with  this  as  the 
first  money  she  has  ever  earned  by  her  pen  that  she  is 
reluctant  to  part  with  the  check.  The  result  is  that  she 
has  not  offered  it  for  deposit,  and  has  decided  to  frame 
it.  Considering  the  condition  of  our  exchequer,  I 
have  tried  to  explain  to  her,  and  so  have  my  son  and 


BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE  199 

daughter,  that  if  she  were  to  present  the  check  for  pay- 
ment and  ailow  it  to  pass  through  the  bank,  the  check 
would  come  back  to  you  and  that  I  am  sure  your  com- 
pany would  return  it  to  her  as  a  souvenir  of  the  momen- 
tous occasion.  Our  arguments  are  of  no  avail,  however, 
and  it  occurred  to  me  that  an  assurance  from  you  might 
make  the  check  more  useful  than  it  is  at  present ! " 

Bok  saw  with  this  disposition  that,  as  he  had  hoped, 
the  avenue  of  favorable  approach  to  Mr.  Gladstone  had 
been  kept  open.  The  next  summer  Bok  again  visited 
Hawarden,  where  he  found  the  statesman  absorbed  in 
writing  a  hfe  of  Bishop  Butler,  from  which  it  was  diffi- 
cult for  him  to  turn  away.  He  explained  that  it  would 
take  at  least  a  year  or  two  to  finish  this  work.  Bok  saw, 
of  course,  his  advantage,  and  closed  a  contract  with  the 
English  statesman  whereby  he  was  to  write  the  twelve 
autobiographical  articles  immediately  upon  his  com- 
pletion of  the  work  then  under  his  hand. 

Here  again,  however,  as  in  the  case  of  jMr.  Blaine, 
the  contract  was  never  fulfilled,  for  Mr.  Gladstone  passed 
away  before  he  could  free  his  mind  and  begin  on  the 
work. 

The  vicissitudes  of  an  editor's  life  were  certainly  be- 
ginning to  demonstrate  themselves  to  Edward  Bok. 

The  material  that  the  editor  was  publishing  and  the 
authors  that  he  was  laying  under  contribution  began  to 
have  marked  effect  upon  the  circulation  of  the  magazine, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  the  original  figures  were 
doubled,  an  edition — enormous  for  that  day — of  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  copies  was  printed  and  sold 
each  month,  the  magical  figure  of  a  million  was  in  sight. 


200  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

and  the  periodical  was  rapidly  taking  its  place  as  one  of 
the  largest  successes  of  the  day. 

Mr.  Curtis's  single  proprietorship  of  the  magazine  had 
been  changed  into  a  corporation  called  The  Curtis 
Pubhshing  Company,  with  a  capital  of  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  with  Mr.  Curtis  as  president,  and 
Bok  as  vice-president. 

The  magazine  had  by  no  means  an  easy  road  to 
travel  financially.  The  doubling  of  the  subscription 
price  to  one  dollar  per  year  had  materially  checked 
the  income  for  the  time  being;  the  huge  advertising 
bills,  sometimes  exceeding  three  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year,  were  difficult  to  pay;  large  credit  had  to  be 
obtained,  and  the  banks  were  carrying  a  considerable 
quantity  of  Mr.  Curtis's  notes.  But  Mr.  Curtis  never 
wavered  in  his  faith  in  his  proposition  and  his  editor. 
In  the  first  he  invested  all  he  had  and  could  borrow,  and 
to  the  latter  he  gave  his  undivided  support.  The  two 
men  worked  together  rather  as  father  and  son — as, 
curiously  enough,  they  were  to  be  later — than  as  em- 
ployer and  employee.  To  Bok,  the  daily  experience  of 
seeing  Mr.  Curtis  finance  his  proposition  in  sums  that 
made  the  publishing  world  of  that  day  gasp  with  scep- 
tical astonishment  was  a  wonderful  opportunity,  of 
which  the  editor  took  fuU  advantage  so  as  to  learn  the 
intricacies  of  a  world  which  up  to  that  time  he  had 
known  only  in  a  hmited  way. 

What  attracted  Bok  immensely  to  Mr.  Curtis's 
methods  was  their  perfect  simplicity  and  directness. 
He  beheved  absolutely  in  the  final  outcome  of  his  prop- 
osition:   where  others  saw  mist  and  failure  ahead,  he 


BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE  201 

saw  clear  weather  and  the  port  of  success.  Never  did 
he  waver:  never  did  he  deflect  from  his  course.  He 
knew  no  path  save  the  direct  one  that  led  straight  to 
success,  and,  through  his  eyes,  he  made  Bok  see  it  with 
equal  clarity  until  Bok  wondered  why  others  could  not 
see  it.  But  they  could  not.  Cyrus  Curtis  would  never 
be  able,  they  said,  to  come  out  from  under  the  load  he 
had  piled  up.  Where  they  dififered  from  Mr.  Curtis 
was  in  their  lack  of  vision:  they  could  not  see  what  he 
saw ! 

It  has  been  said  that  Mr.  Curtis  banished  patent- 
medicine  advertisements  from  his  magazine  only  when 
he  could  afford  to  do  so.  That  is  not  true,  as  a  simple 
incident  will  show.  In  the  early  days,  he  and  Bok  were 
opening  the  mail  one  Friday  full  of  anxiety  because  the 
pay-roU  was  due  that  evening,  and  there  was  not  enough 
money  in  the  bank  to  meet  it.  From  one  of  the  letters 
dropped  a  certified  check  for  five  figures  for  a  contract 
equal  to  five  pages  in  the  magazine.  It  was  a  welcome 
sight,  for  it  meant  an  easy  meeting  of  the  pay-roll  for 
that  week  and  two  succeeding  weeks.  But  the  check 
was  from  a  manufacturing  patent-medicine  company. 
Without  a  moment's  hesitation,  Mr.  Curtis  slipped  it 
back  into  the  envelope,  saying:  ''Of  course,  that  we 
can't  take."  He  returned  the  check,  never  gave  the 
matter  a  second  thought,  and  went  out  and  borrowed 
more  money  to  meet  his  pay-roll ! 

With  all  respect  to  American  publishers,  there  are 
very  few  who  could  have  done  this — or  indeed,  would 
do  it  to-day,  under  similar  conditions — particularly  in 
that  day  when  it  was  the  custom  for  all  magazines  to 


202   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

accept  patent-medicine  advertising;  The  Ladies^  Home 
Journal  was  practically  the  only  publication  of  standing 
in  the  United  States  refusing  that  class  of  business ! 

Bok  now  saw  advertising  done  on  a  large  scale  by  a 
man  who  beheved  in  plenty  of  white  space  surrounding 
the  announcement  in  the  advertisement.  He  paid  Mr. 
Howells  $10,000  for  his  autobiography,  and  Mr.  Curtis 
spent  $50,000  in  advertising  it.  "It  is  not  expense," 
he  would  explain  to  Bok,  "it  is  investment.  We  are 
investing  in  a  trade-mark.  It  will  all  come  back  in 
time."  And  when  the  first  $100,000  did  not  come  back 
as  Mr.  Curtis  figured,  he  would  send  another  $100,000 
after  it,  and  then  both  came  back. 

Bok's  experience  in  advertisement  writing  was  now  to 
stand  him  in  excellent  stead.  He  wrote  aU  the  adver- 
tisements and  from  that  day  to  the  day  of  his  retire- 
ment, practically  every  advertisement  of  the  magazine 
was  written  by  him. 

Mr.  Curtis  believed  that  the  editor  should  write  the 
advertisements  of  a  magazine's  articles.  "You  are  the 
one  who  knows  them,  what  is  in  them  and  your  purpose," 
he  said  to  Bok,  who  keenly  enjoyed  this  advertisement 
writing.  He  put  less  and  less  in  his  advertisements. 
Mr.  Curtis  made  them  larger  and  larger  in  the  space 
which  they  occupied  in  the  media  used.  In  this  way 
The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  advertisements  became  dis- 
tinctive for  their  use  of  white  space,  and  as  the  adver- 
tising world  began  to  say:  "You  can't  miss  them."  Only 
one  feature  was  advertised  at  one  time,  but  the  "fea- 
ture" was  always  carefully  selected  for  its  wide  popular 
appeal,    and   then   Mr.   Curtis  spared  no   expense  to 


BUILDING  UP  A  MAGAZINE  203 

advertise  it  abundantly.  As  much  as  $400,000  was 
spent  in  one  year  in  advertising  only  a  few  features — 
a  gigantic  sum  in  those  days,  approached  by  no  other 
periodical.  But  Mr.  Curtis  believed  in  showing  the 
advertising  world  that  he  was  willing  to  take  his  own 
medicine. 

Naturally,  such  a  campaign  of  publicity  announcing 
the  most  popular  attractions  offered  by  any  magazine 
of  the  day  had  but  one  effect:  the  circulation  leaped 
forward  by  bounds,  and  the  advertising  columns  of  the 
magazine  rapidly  filled  up. 

The  success  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  began  to 
look  like  an  assured  fact,  even  to  the  most  sceptical. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  only  at  its  beginning,  as 
both  publisher  and  editor  knew.  But  they  desired  to 
fill  the  particular  field  of  the  magazine  so  quickly  and 
fully  that  there  would  be  small  room  for  competition. 
The  woman's  magazine  field  was  to  belong  to  them  ! 


CHAPTER  XrX 

PERSONALITY  LETTERS 

Edward  Bok  was  always  interested  in  the  manner 
in  which  personaHty  was  expressed  in  letters.  For  this 
reason  he  adopted,  as  a  boy,  the  method  of  collecting 
not  mere  autographs,  but  letters  characteristic  of  their 
writers  which  should  give  interesting  insight  into  the 
most  famous  men  and  women  of  the  day.  He  secured 
what  were  really  personality  letters. 

One  of  these  writers  was  Mark  Twain.  The  humorist 
was  not  kindly  disposed  toward  autograph  collectors, 
and  the  fact  that  in  this  case  the  collector  aimed  to 
raise  the  standard  of  the  hobby  did  not  appease  him. 
Still,  it  brought  forth  a  characteristic  letter: 

I  hope  I  shall  not  offend  you;  I  shall  certainly  say  nothing 
with  the  intention  to  offend  you.  I  must  explain  myself, 
however,  and  I  will  do  it  as  kindly  as  I  can.  What  you 
ask  me  to  do,  I  am  asked  to  do  as  often  as  one-half  dozen 
times  a  week.  Three  hundred  letters  a  year !  One's  impulse 
is  to  freely  consent,  but  one's  time  and  necessary  occupations 
will  not  permit  it.  There  is  no  way  but  to  decline  in  all 
cases,  making  no  exceptions,  and  I  wish  to  call  your  attention 
to  a  thing  which  has  probably  not  occurred  to  you,  and  that 
is  this :  that  no  man  takes  pleasure  in  exercising  his  trade  as  a 
pastime.  Writing  is  my  trade,  and  I  exercise  it  only  when  I 
am  obliged  to.  You  might  make  your  request  of  a  doctor, 
or  a  builder,  or  a  sculptor,  and  there  would  be  no  impropriety 

in  it,  but  if  you  asked  either  of  those  for  a  specimen  of  his 

204 


PERSONALITY  LETTERS  205 

trade,  his  handiwork,  he  would  be  justified  in  rising  to  a  point 
of  order.  It  would  never  be  fair  to  ask  a  doctor  for  one  of 
his  corpses  to  remember  him  by.  ^^^^  Twain. 

At  another  time,  after  an  interesting  talk  with  Mark 
Twain,  Bok  wrote  an  account  of  the  interview,  with  the 
humorist's  permission.  Desirous  that  the  published 
account  should  be  in  every  respect  accurate,  the  manu- 
script was  forwarded  to  Mark  Twain  for  his  approval. 
This  resulted  in  the  following  interesting  letter; 

My  Dear  Mr.  Bok: 

No,  no — it  is  like  most  interviews,  pure  twaddle,  and  value- 
less. 

For  several  quite  plain  and  simple  reasons,  an  "interview** 
must,  as  a  rule,  be  an  absurdity.  And  chiefly  for  this  reason: 
it  is  an  attempt  to  use  a  boat  on  land,  or  a  wagon  on  water, 
to  speak  figuratively.  Spoken  speech  is  one  thing,  written 
speech  is  quite  another.  Print  is  a  proper  vehicle  for  the 
latter,  but  it  isn't  for  the  former.  The  moment  "talk"  is 
put  into  print  you  recognize  that  it  is  not  what  it  was  when  you 
heard  it;  you  perceive  that  an  immense  something  has  dis- 
appeared from  it.  That  is  its  soul.  You  have  nothing  but 
a  dead  carcass  left  on  your  hands.  Color,  play  of  feature, 
the  varying  modulations  of  voice,  the  laugh,  the  smile,  the 
informing  inflections,  everything  that  gave  that  body  warmth, 
grace,  friendliness,  and  charm,  and  commended  it  to  your 
affection,  or  at  least  to  your  tolerance,  is  gone,  and  nothing 
is  left,  but  a  pallid,  stiff  and  repulsive  cadaver. 

Such  is  "talk,"  almost  invariably,  as  you  see  it  lying  in 
state  in  an  "interview."  The  interviewer  seldom  tries  to 
tell  one  how  a  thing  was  said;  he  merely  puts  in  the  naked 
remark,  and  stops  there.  When  one  writes  for  print,  his 
methods  are  very  different.  He  follows  forms  which  have 
but  little  resemblance  to  conversation,  but  they  make  the 


2o6  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

reader  understand  what  the  writer  is  trying  to  convey.  And 
when  the  writer  is  making  a  story,  and  finds  it  necessary  to 
report  some  of  the  talk  of  his  characters,  observe  how  cau- 
tiously and  anxiously  he  goes  at  that  risky  and  difficult  thing: 

"If  he  had  dared  to  say  that  thing  in  my  presence,"  said 
Alfred,  taking  a  mock  heroic  attitude,  and  casting  an  arch 
glance  upon  the  company,  "blood  would  have  flowed." 

"If  he  had  dared  to  say  that  thing  in  my  presence,"  said 
Hawkwood,  with  that  in  his  eye  which  caused  more  than  one 
heart  in  that  guilty  assemblage  to  quake,  "blood  would  have 
flowed." 

"If  he  had  dared  to  say  that  thing  in  my  presence,"  said 
the  paltry  blusterer,  with  valor  on  his  tongue  and  pallor  on 
his  lips,  "blood  would  have  flowed." 

So  painfully  aware  is  the  novelist  that  naked  talk  in  print 
conveys  no  meaning,  that  he  loads,  and  often  overloads,  al- 
most every  utterance  of  his  characters  with  explanations  and 
interpretations.  It  is  a  loud  confession  that  print  is  a  poor 
vehicle  for  "talk,"  it  is  a  recognition  that  uninterpreted  talk 
in  print  would  result  in  confusion  to  the  reader,  not  instruc- 
tion. 

Now,  in  your  interview  you  have  certainly  been  most 
accurate,  you  have  set  down  the  sentences  I  uttered  as  I  said 
them.  But  you  have  not  a  word  of  explanation;  what  my 
manner  was  at  several  points  is  not  indicated.  Therefore, 
no  reader  can  possibly  know  where  I  was  in  earnest  and  where 
I  was  joking;  or  whether  I  was  joking  altogether  or  in  earnest 
altogether.  Such  a  report  of  a  conversation  has  no  value. 
It  can  convey  many  meanings  to  the  reader,  but  never  the 
right  one.  To  add  interpretations  which  would  convey  the 
right  meaning  is  a  something  which  would  require— what  ? 
An  art  so  high  and  fine  and  difficult  that  no  possessor  of  it 
would  ever  be  allowed  to  waste  it  on  interviews. 

No;  spare  the  reader  and  spare  me;  leave  the  whole  inter- 
view out;  it  is  rubbish.  I  wouldn't  talk  in  my  sleep  if  I 
couldn't  talk  better  than  that. 


PERSONALITY  LETTERS  207 

If  you  wish  to  print  anything  print  this  letter;  it  may  have 
some  value,  for  it  may  explain  to  a  reader  here  and  there 
why  it  is  that  in  interviews  as  a  rule  men  seem  to  talk  like 
anybody  but  themselves. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Mark  Twain. 

The  Harpers  had  asked  Bok  to  write  a  book  descrip- 
tive of  his  autograph-letter  collection,  and  he  had  con- 
sented. The  propitious  moment,  however,  never  came 
in  his  busy  life.  One  day  he  mentioned  the  fact  to 
Doctor  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  the  poet  said: 
*'Let  me  write  the  introduction  for  it."  Bok,  of  course, 
eagerly  accepted,  and  within  a  few  days  he  received  the 
following,  which,  with  the  book,  never  reached  publica- 
tion: 

How  many  autograph  writers  have  had  occasion  to  say 
with  the  Scotch  trespasser  climbing  his  neighbor's  wall,  when 
asked  where  he  was  going 

Bok  again ! 

Edward  Bok  has  persevered  like  the  widow  in  scripture, 
and  the  most  obdurate  subjects  of  his  quest  have  found 
it  for  their  interest  to  give  in,  lest  by  his  continual  coming  he 
should  weary  them.  We  forgive  him ;  almost  admire  him  for 
his  pertinacity;  only  let  him  have  no  imitators.  The  tax  he 
has  levied  must  not  be  imposed  a  second  time. 

An  autograph  of  a  distinguished  personage  means  more  to 
an  imaginative  person  than  a  prosaic  looker-on  dreams  of. 
Along  these  lines  ran  the  consciousness  and  the  guiding  will  of 
Napoleon,  or  Washington,  of  Milton  or  Goethe.  His  breath 
warmed  the  sheet  of  paper  which  you  have  before  you.  The 
microscope  will  show  you  the  trail  of  flattened  particles  left 
by  the  tesselated  epidermis  of  his  hand  as  it  swept  along  the 
manuscript.    Nay,  if  we  had  but  the  right  developing  fluid 


2o8  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

to  flow  over  it,  the  surface  of  the  sheet  would  offer  you  his 
photograph  as  the  light  pictured  it  at  the  instant  of  writing. 

Look  at  Mr.  Bok's  collection  with  such  thoughts,  .  .  .  and 
you  will  cease  to  wonder  at  his  pertinacity  and  applaud  the 
conquests  of  his  enthusiasm. 

'  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

Whenever  biographers  of  the  New  England  school  of 
writers  have  come  to  write  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier, 
they  have  been  puzzled  as  to  the  scanty  number  of  let- 
ters and  private  papers  left  by  the  poet.  This  letter, 
written  to  Bok,  in  comment  upon  a  report  that  the  poet 
had  burned  all  his  letters,  is  illuminating: 

Dear  Friend: 

The  report  concerning  the  burning  of  my  letters  is  only 
true  so  far  as  this:  some  years  ago  I  destroyed  a  large  col- 
lection of  letters  I  had  received  not  from  any  regard  to  my 
own  reputation,  but  from  the  fear  that  to  leave  them  liable  to 
publicity  might  be  injurious  or  unpleasant  to  the  writers  or 
their  friends.  They  covered  much  of  the  anti-slavery  period 
and  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  and  many  of  them  I  knew  were 
strictly  private  and  confidential.  I  was  not  able  at  the  time 
to  look  over  the  MS.  and  thought  it  safest  to  make  a  bonfire 
of  it  all.  I  have  always  regarded  a  private  and  confidential 
letter  as  sacred  and  its  publicity  in  any  shape  a  shameful 
breach  of  trust,  unless  authorized  by  the  writer.  I  only 
wish  my  own  letters  to  thousands  of  correspondents  may  be 
as  carefully  disposed  of. 

You  may  use  this  letter  as  you  think  wise  and  best. 

Very  truly  thy  friend, 

John  G.  Whittier. 

Once  in  a  while  a  bit  of  untold  history  crept  into  a 
letter  sent  to  Bok;  as  for  example  in  the  letter,  referred 


PERSONALITY  LETTERS  209 

to  in  a  previous  chapter  from  General  Jubal  A.  Early, 
the  Confederate  general,  in  which  he  gave  an  explana- 
tion, never  before  fully  given,  of  his  reasons  for  the 
burning  of  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania: 

The  town  of  Chambersburg  was  burned  on  the  same  day 
on  which  the  demand  on  it  was  made  by  McCausiand  and 
refused.  It  was  ascertained  that  a  force  of  the  enemy's 
cavalry  was  approaching,  and  there  was  no  time  for  delay. 
Moreover,  the  refusal  was  peremptory,  and  there  was  no  rea- 
son for  delay  unless  the  demand  was  a  mere  idle  threat. 

I  had  no  knowledge  of  what  amount  of  money  there  might 
be  in  Chambersburg.  I  knew  that  it  was  a  town  of  some 
twelve  thousand  inhabitants.  The  town  of  Frederick,  in 
IMaryland,  which  was  a  much  smaller  town  than  Chambers- 
burg, had  in  June  very  promptly  responded  to  my  demand 
on  it  for  $200,000,  some  of  the  inhabitants,  who  were  friendly 
to  me,  expressing  a  regret  that  I  had  not  made  it  $500,000. 
There  were  one  or  more  National  Banks  at  Chambersburg, 
and  the  town  ought  to  have  been  able  to  raise  the  sum  I 
demanded.  I  never  heard  that  the  refusal  was  based  on  the 
inability  to  pay  such  a  sum,  and  there  was  no  offer  to  pay  any 
sum.  The  value  of  the  houses  destroyed  by  Hunter,  with 
their  contents,  was  fully  $100,000  in  gold,  and  at  the  time  I 
made  the  demand  the  price  of  gold  in  greenbacks  had  very 
nearly  reached  $3.00  and  was  going  up  rapidly.  Hence  it 
was  that  I  required  the  $500,000  in  greenbacks,  if  the  gold  was 
not  paid,  to  provide  against  any  further  depreciation  of  the 
paper  money. 

I  would  have  been  fully  justified  by  the  laws  of  retaliation 
in  war  in  burning  the  town  without  giving  the  inhabitants  the 
opportunity  of  redeeming  it.  T    A    F  ptv 

Bok  wrote  to  Eugene  Field,  once,  asking  him  why  in 
all  his  verse  he  had  never  written  any  love-songs,  and 


2IO  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

suggesting  that  the  story  of  Jacob  and  Rachel  would 
have  made  a  theme  for  a  beautiful  love-poem.  Field's 
reply  is  interesting  and  characteristic,  and  throws  a 
light  on  an  omission  in  his  works  at  which  many  have 
wondered : 

Dear  Bok: 

I'll  see  what  I  can  do  with  the  suggestion  as  to  Jacob  and 
Rachel.  Several  have  asked  me  why  I  have  never  written 
any  love-songs.  That  is  hard  to  answer.  I  presume  it  is 
because  I  married  so  young.  I  was  married  at  twenty-three, 
and  did  not  begin  to  write  until  I  was  twenty-nine.  Most 
of  my  lullabies  are,  in  a  sense,  love-songs;  so  is  **To  a 
Usurper,"  "A  Valentine,"  "The  Little  Bit  of  a  Woman," 
"Lovers'  Lane,"  etc.,  but  not  the  kind  commonly  called  love- 
songs.  I  am  sending  you  herewith  my  first  love-song,  and 
even  into  it  has  crept  a  cadence  that  makes  it  a  love-song  of 
maturity  rather  than  of  youth.  I  do  not  know  that  you  will 
care  to  have  it,  but  it  will  interest  you  as  the  first.  .  .  . 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 

Eugene  Field. 

During  the  last  years  of  his  life,  Bok  tried  to  interest 
Benjamin  Harrison,  former  President  of  the  United 
States,  in  golf,  since  his  physician  had  ordered  "moder- 
ate outdoor  exercise."  Bok  offered  to  equip  him  with 
the  necessary  clubs  and  balls.  When  he  received  the 
balls,  the  ex-president  wrote: 

"Thanks.  But  does  not  a  bottle  of  Hniment  go  with 
eachbaU?" 

When  William  Howard  Taft  became  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  impression  was  given  out  that  jour- 
nalists would  not  be  so  welcome  at  the  White  House  as 
they  had  been  during  the  administration  of  President 


PERSONALITY  LETTERS  211 

Roosevelt.  Mr.  Taft,  writing  to  Bok  about  another 
matter,  asked  why  he  had  not  called  and  talked  it  over 
while  in  Washington.  Bok  explained  the  impression 
that  was  current;  whereupon  came  the  answer,  swift 
and  definite ! 

There  are  no  persona  non  gratm  at  the  White  House.  I 
long  ago  learned  the  waste  of  time  in  maintaining  such  a  class. 

There  was  in  circulation  during  Henry  Ward  Beecher's 
lifetime  a  story,  which  is  still  revived  every  now  and 
then,  that  on  a  hot  Sunday  morning  in  early  summer, 
he  began  his  sermon  in  Plymouth  Church  by  declaring 
that  "It  is  too  damned  hot  to  preach."  Bok  wrote  to  the 
great  preacher,  asked  him  the  truth  of  this  report,  and 
received  this  definite  denial: 

My  Dear  Friend: 

No,  I  never  did  begin  a  sermon  with  the  remark  that  "it 

is  d — d  hot,"  etc.     It  is  a  story  a  hundred  years  old,  revamped 

every  few  years  to  suit  some  new  man.     When  I  am  dead 

and  gone,  it  will  be  told  to  the  rising  generation  respecting 

some  other  man,  and  then,  as  now,  there  will  be  fools  who  will 

swear  that  they  heard  it !  ,t  ttt         t^ 

•'  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

When  Bok's  father  passed  away,  he  left,  among  his 
efi"ects,  a  large  number  of  Confederate  bonds.  Bok 
wrote  to  Jefferson  Davis,  asking  if  they  had  any  value, 
and  received  this  characteristic  answer: 

I  regret  my  inability  to  give  an  opinion.  The  theor>'  of 
the  Confederate  Government,  like  that  of  the  United  States, 
was  to  separate  the  sword  from  the  purse.  Therefore,  the 
Confederate  States  Treasury  was  under  the  control  not  of 


212   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  Chief  Executive,  but  of  the  Congress  and  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury.  This  may  explain  my  want  of  special  in- 
formation in  regard  to  the  Confederate  States  Bonds.  Gen- 
erally, I  may  state  that  the  Confederate  Government  cannot 
have  preserved  a  fund  for  the  redemption  of  its  Bonds  other 
than  the  cotton  subscribed  by  our  citizens  for  that  purpose. 
At  the  termination  of  the  War,  the  United  States  Government, 
claiming  to  be  the  successor  of  the  Confederate  Government, 
seized  all  its  property  which  could  be  found,  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  I  have  not  heard  of  any  purpose  to  apply  these 
assets  to  the  payment  of  the  liabilities  of  the  Confederacy, 
and,  therefore,  have  been  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  demand 
which  has  lately  been  made  for  the  Confederate  Bonds. 

Jefferson  Davis. 

Always  the  soul  of  courtesy  itself,  and  most  obliging 
in  granting  the  numerous  requests  which  came  to  him 
for  his  autograph,  William  Dean  Ho  wells  finally  turned; 
and  Bok  always  considered  himself  fortunate  that  the 
novelist  announced  his  decision  to  him  in  the  following 
characteristic  letter: 

The  requests  for  my  autograph  have  of  late  become  so  bur- 
densome that  I  am  obliged  either  to  refuse  all  or  to  make 
some  sort  of  limitation.  Every  author  must  have  an  uneasy 
fear  that  his  signature  is  "collected"  at  times  like  postage- 
stamps,  and  at  times  "traded"  among  the  collectors  for  other 
signatures.  That  would  not  matter  so  much  if  the  appli- 
cants were  always  able  to  spell  his  name,  or  were  apparently 
acquainted  with  his  work  or  interested  in  it. 

I  propose,  therefore,  to  give  my  name  hereafter  only  to 
such  askers  as  can  furnish  me  proof  by  intelligent  comment 
upon  it  that  they  have  read  some  book  of  mine.  If  they  can 
inclose  a  bookseller's  certificate  that  they  have  bought  the 
book,  their  case  will  be  very  much  strengthened ;  but  I  do  not 


PERSONALITY  LETTERS  213 

insist  upon  this.  In  all  instances  a  card  and  a  stamped  and 
directed  envelope  must  be  inclosed.  I  will  never  "add  a 
sentiment"  except  in  the  case  of  applicants  who  can  give  me 
proof  that  they  have  read  all  my  books,  now  some  thirty  or 
forty  in  number.  ...    ^    __ 

"^  W.    D.    HOVVELLS. 

It  need  hardly  be  added  that  Mr.  Howells's  good 
nature  prevented  his  adherence  to  his  rule ! 

Rudyard  Kipling  is  another  whose  letters  fairly  vi- 
brate with  personality;  few  men  can  write  more  inter- 
estingly, or,  incidentally,  considering  his  microscopic 
handwriting,  say  more  on  a  letter  page. 

Bok  was  teUing  Kipling  one  day  about  the  scrapple 
so  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  Philadelphian  as  a  breakfast 
dish.  The  author  had  never  heard  of  it  or  tasted  it, 
and  wished  for  a  sample.  So,  upon  his  return  home, 
Bok  had  a  Philadelphia  market-man  send  some  of  the 
Philadelphia-made  article,  packed  in  ice,  to  Kipling 
in  his  English  home.  There  were  several  pounds  of  it 
and  KipUng  wrote : 

By  the  way,  that  scrapple — which  by  token  is  a  dir.h  for 
the  Gods — arrived  in  perfect  condition,  and  I  ate  it  all,  or  as 
much  as  I  could  get  hold  of.  I  am  extremely  grateful  for  it. 
It's  all  nonsense  about  pig  being  unwholesome.  There  isn't 
a  Mary-ache  in  a  barrel  of  scrapple. 

Then  later  came  this  afterthought: 

A  noble  dish  is  that  scrapple,  hut  don't  eat  three  slices  and 
go  to  work  straight  on  top  of  'em.  That's  the  way  to  dys- 
pepsia ! 

P.  S.  I  wish  to  goodness  you'd  give  another  look  at  Eng- 
land before  long.  It's  quite  a  country;  really  it  is.  Old, 
too,  I  believe. 


214   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

It  was  Kipling  who  suggested  that  Bok  should  name 
his  Merion  home  "Swastika."  Bok  asked  what  the 
author  knew  about  the  mystic  sign : 

There  is  a  huge  book  (I've  forgotten  the  name,  but  the 
Smithsonian  will  know),  he  wrote  back,  about  the  Swastika 
(pronounced  Swas-ti-ka  to  rhyme  with  "car's  ticker"),  in 
literature,  art,  religion,  dogma,  etc.  I  believe  there  are  two 
sorts  of  Swastikas,  one  Et  and  one  K;  one  is  bad,  the  other 
is  good,  but  which  is  which  I  know  not  for  sure.  The  Hindu 
trader  opens  his  yearly  account-books  with  a  Swastika  as  "an 
auspicious  beginning,"  and  all  the  races  of  the  earth  have  used 
it.  It's  an  inexhaustible  subject,  and  some  man  in  the  Smith- 
sonian ought  to  be  full  of  it.  Anyhow,  the  sign  on  the  door 
or  the  hearth  should  protect  you  against  fire  and  water  and 
thieves. 

By  this  time  should  have  reached  you  a  Swastika  door- 
knocker, which  I  hope  may  fit  in  with  the  new  house  and  the 
new  name.  It  was  made  by  a  village-smith;  and  you  will 
see  that  it  has  my  initials,  to  which  I  hope  you  will  add  yours, 
that  the  story  may  be  complete. 

We  are  settled  out  here  in  Cape  Town,  eating  strawberries 
in  January  and  complaining  of  the  heat,  which  for  the  last 
two  days  has  been  a  little  more  than  we  pampered  folk  are 
used  to;  say  70°  at  night.  But  what  a  lovely  land  it  is,  and 
how  superb  are  the  hydrangeas !  Figure  to  yourself  four  acres 
of  'em,  all  in  bloom  on  the  hillside  near  our  home ! 

Bok  had  visited  the  Panama  Canal  before  its  com- 
pletion and  had  talked  with  the  men,  high  and  low, 
working  on  it,  asking  them  how  they  felt  about  President 
Roosevelt's  action  in  ''digging  the  Canal  first  and  talk- 
ing about  it  afterwards."  He  wrote  the  result  of  his  talks 
to  Colonel  Roosevelt,  and  received  this  reply: 


PERSONALITY  LETTERS  215 

I  shall  always  keep  your  letter,  for  I  shall  want  my  chil- 
dren and  grandchildren  to  see  it  after  I  am  gone.  I  feel  just 
as  you  do  about  the  Canal.  It  is  the  greatest  contribution 
I  was  able  to  make  to  my  country;  and  while  I  do  not  believe 
my  countrymen  appreciate  this  at  the  moment,  I  am  extremely 
pleased  to  know  that  the  men  on  the  Canal  do,  for  they  are 
the  men  who  have  done  and  are  doing  the  great  job.  I  am 
awfully  pleased  that  you  feel  the  way  you  do. 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 

In  1887,  General  William  Tecumseh  Sherman  was 
much  talked  about  as  a  candidate  for  the  presidency, 
until  his  famous  declaration  came  out:  "I  will  not  run  if 
nominated,  and  will  not  serve  if  elected."  During  the 
weeks  of  talk,  however,  much  was  said  of  General  Sher- 
man's religious  views,  some  contending  that  he  was  a 
Roman  Catholic;  others  that  he  was  a  Protestant. 

Bok  wrote  to  General  Sherman  and  asked  him.  His 
answer  was  direct: 

My  family  is  strongly  Roman  Catholic,  but  I  am  not. 
Until  I  ask  some  favor  the  public  has  no  claim  to  question  me 
further. 

When  Mrs.  Sherman  passed  away,  Doctor  T.  DeWitt 
Talmage  wrote  General  Sherman  a  note  of  condolence, 
and  what  is  perhaps  one  of  the  fullest  expositions  of  his 
religious  faith  to  which  he  ever  gave  expression  came 
from  him  in  a  most  remarkable  letter,  which  Doctor 
Talmage  gave  to  Bok. 

New  York,  December  12,  1886. 
My  Dear  Friend: 

Your  most  tender  epistle  from  Mansfield,  Ohio,  of  Decem- 
ber 9  brought  here  last  night  by  your  son  awakens  in  my 


2i6   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

brain  a  flood  of  memories.  Mrs.  Sherman  was  by  nature 
and  inheritance  an  Irish  Catholic.  Her  grandfather,  Hugh 
Boyle,  was  a  highly  educated  classical  scholar,  whom  I  re- 
member well, — married  the  half  sister  of  the  mother  of  James 
G.  Blaine  at  Brownsville,  Pa.,  settled  in  our  native  town  Lan- 
caster, Fairfield  County,  Ohio,  and  became  the  Clerk  of  the 
County  Court.  He  had  two  daughters,  Maria  and  Susan. 
Maria  became  the  wife  of  Thomas  Ewing,  about  1819,  and 
was  the  mother  of  my  wife,  Ellen  Boyle  Ewing.  She  was  so 
staunch  to  what  she  believed  the  true  Faith  that  I  am  sure 
that  though  she  loved  her  children  better  than  herself,  she 
would  have  seen  them  die  with  less  pang,  than  to  depart 
from  the  "Faith."  Mr.  Ewing  was  a  great  big  man,  an  in- 
tellectual giant,  and  looked  down  on  religion  as  something 
domestic,  something  consoling  which  ought  to  be  encouraged; 
and  to  him  it  made  little  difference  whether  the  religion  was 
Methodist,  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  or  Catholic,  provided  the 
acts  were  "half  as  good"  as  their  professions. 

In  1829  my  father,  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio, 
died  at  Lebanon  away  from  home,  leaving  his  widow,  Mary 
Hoyt  of  Norwalk,  Conn,  (sister  to  Charles  and  James  Hoyt 
of  Brooklyn)  with  a  frame  house  in  Lancaster,  an  income  of 
$200  a  year  and  eleven  as  hungry,  rough,  and  uncouth  chil- 
dren as  ever  existed  on  earth.  But  father  had  been  kind, 
generous,  manly,  with  a  big  heart;  and  when  it  ceased  to  beat 
friends  turned  up —  Our  Uncle  Stoddard  took  Charles,  the 
oldest;  W.  I.  married  the  next,  Elisabeth  (still  living) ;  Amelia 
was  soon  married  to  a  merchant  in  Mansfield,  McCorab;  I, 
the  third  son,  was  adopted  by  Thomas  Ewing,  a  neighbor,  and 
John  fell  to  his  namesake  in  Mt.  Vernon,  a  merchant. 

Surely  "Man  proposes  and  God  disposes."  I  could  fill 
a  hundred  pages,  but  will  not  bore  you.  A  half  century 
has  passed  and  you,  a  Protestant  minister,  write  me  a  kind, 
affectionate  letter  about  my  Catholic  wife  from  Mansfield, 
one  of  my  family  homes,  where  my  mother,  Mary  Hoyt, 


PERSONALITY  LETTERS  217 

died,  and  where  our  Grandmother,  Betsey  Stoddard,  lies 
buried.  Oh,  what  a  flood  of  memories  come  up  at  the  name 
of  Betsey  Stoddard, — daughter  of  the  Revd.  Mr.  Stoddard, 
who  preached  three  times  every  Sunday,  and  as  often  in  be- 
tween as  he  could  cajole  a  congregation  at  ancient  Woodbury, 
Conn., — who  came  down  from  Mansfield  to  Lancaster,  three 
days'  hard  journey  to  regulate  the  family  of  her  son  Judge 
Sherman,  whose  gentle  wife  was  as  afraid  of  Grandma  as  any  of 
us  boys.  She  never  spared  the  rod  or  broom,  but  she  had  more 
square  solid  sense  to  the  yard  than  any  woman  I  ever  saw. 
From  her  Charles,  John,  and  I  inherit  what  little  sense  we 
possess. 

Lancaster,  Fairfield  County,  was  our  paternal  home, 
Mansfield  that  of  Grandmother  Stoddard  and  her  daughter, 
Betsey  Parker.  There  Charles  and  John  settled,  and  when 
in  1846  I  went  to  California  Mother  also  went  there,  and 
there  died  in  1851. 

When  a  boy,  once  a  year  I  had  to  drive  my  mother  in  an 
old  "dandy  wagon"  on  her  annual  visit.  The  distance  was 
75  miles,  further  than  Omaha  is  from  San  Francisco.  We 
al\va}s  took  three  days  and  stopped  at  every  house  to  gossip 
with  the  woman  folks,  and  dispense  medicines  and  syrups 
to  the  sick,  for  in  those  days  all  had  the  chills  or  ague.  If  I 
could  I  would  not  awaken  Grandmother  Betsey  Stoddard 
because  she  would  be  horrified  at  the  backsliding  of  the  ser- 
vants of  Christ, — but  oh !  how  I  would  like  to  take  my  mother, 
Mary  Hoyt,  in  a  railroad  car  out  to  California,  to  Santa  Bar- 
bara and  Los  Angeles,  among  the  vineyards  of  grapes,  the 
groves  of  oranges,  lemons  and  pomegranates.  How  clearly 
recurs  to  me  the  memory  of  her  exclamation  when  I  told  her 
I  had  been  ordered  around  Cape  Horn  to  California.  Her 
idea  was  about  as  definite  as  mine  or  yours  as  to.  Where  is 
Stanley?  but  she  saw  me  return  with  some  nuggets  to  make 
her  life  more  comfortable. 

She  was  a  strong  Presbyterian  to  the  end,  but  she  loved  my 


2i8  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

Ellen,  and  the  love  was  mutual.  All  my  children  have  in- 
herited their  mother's  faith,  and  she  would  have  given  any- 
thing if  I  would  have  simply  said  Amen;  but  it  is  simply 
impossible. 

But  I  am  sure  that  you  know  that  the  God  who  created 
the  minnow,  and  who  has  moulded  the  rose  and  carnation, 
given  each  its  sweet  fragrance,  will  provide  for  those  mortal 
men  who  strive  to  do  right  in  the  world  which  he  himself  has 
stocked  with  birds,  animals,  and  men; — at  all  events,  I  will 
trust  Him  with  absolute  confidence. 

With  great  respect  and  affection, 
Yours  truly, 

W.  T.  Sherman. 


CHAPTER  XX 
MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO 

With  the  hitherto  unreached  magazine  circulation  of 
a  million  copies  a  month  in  sight,  Edward  Bok  de- 
cided to  give  a  broader  scope  to  the  periodical.  He 
was  determined  to  lay  under  contribution  not  only  the 
most  famous  writers  of  the  day,  but  also  to  seek  out  those 
well-known  persons  who  usually  did  not  contribute  to 
the  magazines;  always  keeping  in  mind  the  popular 
appeal  of  his  material,  but  likewise  aiming  constantly  to 
widen  its  scope  and  gradually  to  lift  its  standard. 

Sailing  again  for  England,  he  sought  and  secured  the 
acquaintance  of  Rudyard  Kipling,  whose  alert  mind 
was  at  once  keenly  interested  in  what  Bok  was  trying  to 
do.  He  was  willing  to  co-operate,  with  the  result  that 
Bok  secured  the  author's  new  story,  William  the  Con- 
queror. When  Bok  read  the  manuscript,  he  was  de- 
lighted; he  had  for  some  time  been  reading  Kipling's 
work  with  enthusiasm,  and  he  saw  at  once  that  here 
was  one  of  the  author's  best  tales. 

At  that  time,  Frances  E.  Willard  had  brought  her 
agitation  for  temperance  prominently  before  the  public, 
and  Bok  had  promised  to  aid  her  by  eliminating  from 
his  magazine,  so  far  as  possible,  all  scenes  which  repre- 
sented alcohoHc  drinking.  It  was  not  an  iron-clad  rule, 
but,  both  from  the  principle  fixed  for  his  own  life  and  in 

the  interest  of  the  thousands  of  young  people  who  read 

219 


2  20   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

his  magazine,  he  believed  it  would  be  better  to  minimize 
all  incidents  portraying  alcoholic  drinking  or  drunken- 
ness. Kipling's  story  depicted  several  such  scenes;  so 
when  Bok  sent  the  proofs  he  suggested  that  if  Kipling 
could  moderate  some  of  these  scenes,  it  would  be  more 
in  Hne  with  the  poHcy  of  the  magazine.  Bok  did  not 
make  a  special  point  of  the  matter,  leaving  it  to  Kip- 
ling's judgment  to  decide  how  far  he  could  make  such 
changes  and  preserve  the  atmosphere  of  his  story. 

From  this  incident  arose  the  widely  published  story 
that  Bok  cabled  Kipling,  asking  permission  to  omit  a 
certain  drinking  reference,  and  substitute  something  else, 
whereupon  Kipling  cabled  back:  "Substitute  Mellin's 
Food."  As  a  matter  of  fact  (although  it  is  a  pity  to  kill 
such  a  clever  story),  no  such  cable  was  ever  sent  and 
no  such  reply  ever  received.  As  Kipling  himself  wrote 
to  Bok:  ''No,  I  said  nothing  about  Mellin's  Food. 
I  wish  I  had."  An  American  author  in  London  hap- 
pened to  hear  of  the  correspondence  between  the  editor 
and  the  author,  it  appealed  to  his  sense  of  humor,  and 
the  published  story  was  the  result.  If  it  mattered,  it  is 
possible  that  Brander  Matthews  could  accurately  reveal 
the  originator  of  the  much-published  yarn. 

From  Kipling's  house  Bok  went  to  Tunbridge  Wells 
to  visit  Mary  Anderson,  the  one-time  popular  American 
actress,  who  had  married  Antonio  de  Navarro  and  re- 
tired from  the  stage.  A  goodly  number  of  editors  had 
tried  to  induce  the  retired  actress  to  write,  just  as  a 
number  of  managers  had  tried  to  induce  her  to  return 
to  the  stage.  All  had  failed.  But  Bok  never  accepted 
the  failure  of  others  as  a  final  decision  for  himself;   and 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  221 

after  two  or  three  visits,  he  persuaded  Madame  de  Na- 
varro to  write  her  reminiscences,  which  he  published 
with  marked  success  in  the  magazine. 

The  editor  was  very  desirous  of  securing  something  for 
his  magazine  that  would  delight  children,  and  he  hit 
upon  the  idea  of  trying  to  induce  Lewis  Carroll  to  write 
another  Alice  in  Wonderland  series.  He  was  told  by 
English  friends  that  this  would  be  difficult,  since  the 
author  led  a  secluded  life  at  Oxford  and  hardly  ever 
admitted  any  one  into  his  confidence.  But  Bok  wanted 
to  beard  the  Hon  in  his  den,  and  an  Oxford  graduate 
volunteered  to  introduce  him  to  an  Oxford  don  through 
whom,  if  it  were  at  all  possible,  he  could  reach  the  au- 
thor. The  journey  to  Oxford  was  made,  and  Bok  was 
introduced  to  the  don,  who  turned  out  to  be  no  less  a 
person  than  the  original  possessor  of  the  highly  colored 
vocabulary  of  the  "White  Rabbit"  of  the  Alice  stories. 

''Impossible,"  immediately  declared  the  don.  "You 
couldn't  persuade  Dodgson  to  consider  it."  Bok,  how- 
ever, persisted,  and  it  so  happened  that  the  don  liked 
what  he  called  "American  perseverance." 

"Well,  come  along,"  he  said.  "We'll  beard  the  lion 
in  his  den,  as  you  say,  and  see  what  happens.  You  know, 
of  course,  that  it  is  the  Reverend  Charles  L.  Dodgson 
that  we  are  going  to  see,  and  I  must  introduce  you  to  that 
person,  not  to  Lewis  Carroll.  He  is  a  tutor  in  mathe- 
matics here,  as  you  doubtless  know;  lives  a  rigidly  se- 
cluded life;  dislikes  strangers;  makes  no  friends;  and 
yet  withal  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  men  in  the  world 
if  he  wants  to  be." 

But  as  it  happened  upon  this  special  occasion  when 


222   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Bok  was  introduced  to  him  in  his  chambers  in  Tom 
Quad,  Mr.  Dodgson  did  not  "want  to  be"  delightful. 
There  was  no  doubt  that  back  of  the  studied  reserve 
was  a  kindly,  charming,  gracious  gentleman,  but  Bok's 
profession  had  been  mentioned  and  the  author  was  on 
rigid  guard. 

When  Bok  explained  that  one  of  the  special  reasons 
for  his  journey  from  America  this  summer  was  to  see 
him,  the  Oxford  mathematician  sufficiently  softened  to 
ask  the  editor  to  sit  down.  Bok  then  broached  his 
mission. 

''You  are  quite  in  error,  Mr.  Bok,"  was  the  Dodgson 
comment.  "You  are  not  speaking  to  the  person  you 
think  you  are  addressing." 

For  a  moment  Bok  was  taken  aback.  Then  he  de- 
cided to  go  right  to  the  point. 

"Do  I  understand,  Mr.  Dodgson,  that  you  are  not 
'Lewis  Carroll';  that  you  did  not  write  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land}'' 

For  an  answer  the  tutor  rose,  went  into  another  room, 
and  returned  with  a  book  which  he  handed  to  Bok. 
"This  is  my  book,"  he  said  simply.  It  was  entitled  An 
Elementary  Treatise  on  Determinants,  by  C.  L.  Dodgson. 
When  he  looked  up,  Bok  found  the  author's  eyes  riveted 
on  him. 

"Yes,"  said  Bok.  "I  know,  Mr.  Dodgson.  If  I  re- 
member correctly,  this  is  the  same  book  of  which  you 
sent  a  copy  to  Her  Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  when  she 
wrote  to  you  for  a  personal  copy  of  your  Alice.'' 

Dodgson  made  no  comment.  The  face  was  abso- 
lutely without  expression  save  a  kindly  compassion  in- 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  223 

tended  to  convey  to  the  editor  that  he  was  making  a 
terrible  mistake. 

"As  I  said  to  you  in  the  beginning,  Mr.  Bok,  you  are 
in  error.  You  are  not  speaking  to  'Lewis  Carroll.'" 
And  then:  "Is  this  the  first  time  you  have  visited  Ox- 
ford?" 

Bok  said  it  was;  and  there  followed  the  most  delight- 
ful two  hours  with  the  Oxford  mathematician  and  the 
Oxford  don,  walking  about  and  into  the  wonderful  col- 
lege buildings,  and  afterward  the  three  had  a  bite  of 
lunch  together.  But  all  efforts  to  return  to  "Lewis 
Carroll"  were  futile.  While  saying  good-by  to  his 
host,  Bok  remarked: 

"I  can't  help  expressing  my  disappointment,  Mr. 
Dodgson,  in  my  quest  in  behalf  of  the  thousands  of 
American  children  who  love  you  and  who  would  so 
gladly  welcome  'Lewis  Carroll'  back." 

The  mention  of  children  and  their  love  for  him  mo- 
mentarily had  its  effect.  For  an  instant  a  different 
light  came  into  the  eyes,  and  Bok  instinctively  realized 
Dodgson  was  about  to  say  something.  But  he  checked 
himself.    Bok  had  almost  caught  him  off  his  guard. 

"I  am  sorry,"  he  finally  said  at  the  parting  at  the 
door,  "that  you  should  be  disappointed,  for  the  sake  of 
the  children  as  well  as  for  your  own  sake.  I  only  regret 
that  I  cannot  remove  the  disappointment." 

And  as  the  trio  walked  to  the  station,  the  don  said: 
"That  is  his  attitude  toward  all,  even  toward  me.  He 
is  not  'Lewis  Carroll'  to  any  one;  is  extremely  sensitive 
on  the  point,  and  will  not  acknowledge  his  identity. 
That  is  why  he  lives  so  much  to  himself.    He  is  in  daily 


2  24   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

dread  that  some  one  will  mention  Alice  in  his  presence. 
Curious,  but  there  it  is." 

Edward  Bok's  next  quest  was  to  be  even  more  disap- 
pointing; he  was  never  even  to  reach  the  presence  of  the 
person  he  sought.  This  was  Florence  Nightingale,  the 
Crimean  nurse.  Bok  was  desirous  of  securing  her  own 
stor}^  of  her  experiences,  but  on  ever}^  hand  he  found  an 
unwillingness  even  to  take  him  to  her  house.  ''No 
use,"  said  everybody.  ''She  w^on't  see  any  one.  Hates 
publicity  and  all  that  sort  of  thing,  and  shuns  the  pub- 
lic." Nevertheless,  the  editor  journeyed  to  the  famous 
nurse's  home  on  South  Street,  in  the  West  End  of  Lon- 
don, only  to  be  told  that  "Miss  Nightingale  never  re- 
ceives strangers." 

"But  I  am  not  a  stranger,"  insisted  the  editor.  "I 
am  one  of  her  friends  from  America.  Please  take  my 
card  to  her." 

This  mollified  the  faithful  secretary,  but  the  word 
instantly  came  back  that  Miss  Nightingale  was  not  re- 
ceiving any  one  that  day.  Bok  wrote  her  a  letter  asking 
for  an  appointment,  which  was  never  answered.  Then 
he  wrote  another,  took  it  personally  to  the  house,  and 
awaited  an  answer,  only  to  receive  the  message  that 
"Miss  Nightingale  says  there  is  no  answer  to  the  let- 
ter." 

Bok  had  with  such  remarkable  uniformity  secured 
whatever  he  sought,  that  these  experiences  were  new 
to  him.  Frankly,  they  puzzled  him.  He  was  not  easily 
baflQed,  but  baffled  he  now  was,  and  that  twice  in  suc- 
cession. Turn  as  he  might,  he  could  find  no  way  in 
which  to  reopen  an  approach  to  either  the  Oxford  tutor 


MEETING   A   REVERSE  OR  TWO  225 

or  the  Crimean  nurse.  They  were  plainly  too  much  for 
him,  and  he  had  to  acknowledge  his  defeat.  The  experi- 
ence was  good  for  him;  he  did  not  realize  this  at  the  time, 
nor  did  he  enjoy  the  sensation  of  not  getting  what  he 
wanted.  Nevertheless,  a  reverse  or  two  was  due.  Not 
that  his  success  was  having  any  undesirable  effect  upon 
him;  his  Dutch  common  sense  saved  him  from  any  such 
calamity.  But  at  thirty  years  of  age  it  is  not  good  for 
any  one,  no  matter  how  well  balanced,  to  have  things 
come  his  way  too  fast  and  too  consistently.  And  here 
were  breaks.  He  could  not  have  everything  he  wanted, 
and  it  was  just  as  well  that  he  should  find  that  out. 

In  his  next  quest  he  found  himself  again  opposed  by 
his  London  friends.  Unable  to  secure  a  new  Alice  in 
Wonderland  for  his  child  readers,  he  determined  to  give 
them  Kate  Grecnaway.  But  here  he  had  selected  an- 
other recluse.  Everybody  discouraged  him.  The  artist 
never  saw  visitors,  he  was  told,  and  she  particularly 
shunned  editors  and  publishers.  Her  own  publishers 
confessed  that  Miss  Greenaway  was  inaccessible  to  them. 
*'We  conduct  all  our  business  with  her  by  correspon- 
dence. I  have  never  seen  her  personally  myself,"  said  a 
member  of  the  firm. 

Bok  inwardly  decided  that  two  failures  in  two  da}'s 
were  sufficient,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  that  there 
should  not  be  a  third.  He  took  a  bus  for  the  long  ride 
to  Hampstead  Heath,  where  the  illustrator  lived,  and 
finally  stood  before  a  picturesque  Queen  Anne  house 
that  one  would  have  recognized  at  once,  with  its  lower 
story  of  red  brick,  its  upper  part  covered  with  red  tiles, 
its  windows  of  every  size  and  shape,  as  the  inspiration 


226   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

of  Kate  Greenaway's  pictures.  As  it  turned  out  later, 
Miss  Greenaway's  sister  opened  the  door  and  told  the 
visitor  that  Miss  Greenaway  was  not  at  home. 

"But,  pardon  me,  has  not  Miss  Greenaway  returned? 
Is  not  that  she?"  asked  Bok,  as  he  indicated  a  figure 
just  coming  down  the  stairs.  And  as  the  sister  turned 
to  see,  Bok  stepped  into  the  hall.  At  least  he  was  in- 
side !  Bok  had  never  seen  a  photograph  of  Miss  Green- 
away, he  did  not  know  that  the  figure  coming  down- 
stairs was  the  artist;  but  his  instinct  had  led  him  right, 
and  good  fortune  was  with  him. 

He  now  introduced  himself  to  Kate  Greenaway,  and 
explained  that  one  of  his  objects  in  coming  to  London 
was  to  see  her  on  behalf  of  thousands  of  American 
children.  Naturally  there  was  nothing  for  the  illus- 
trator to  do  but  to  welcome  her  visitor.  She  took  him 
into  the  garden,  where  he  saw  at  once  that  he  was  seated 
under  the  apple-tree  of  Miss  Greenaway's  pictures.  It 
was  in  full  bloom,  a  veritable  picture  of  spring  loveliness. 
Bok's  love  for  nature  pleased  the  artist  and  when  he 
recognized  the  cat  that  sauntered  up,  he  could  see  that 
he  was  making  headway.  But  when  he  explained  his 
profession  and  stated  his  errand,  the  atmosphere  in- 
stantly changed.  Miss  Greenaway  conveyed  the  un- 
mistakable impression  that  she  had  been  trapped,  and 
Bok  reahzed  at  once  that  he  had  a  long  and  difficult  road 
ahead. 

Still,  negotiate  it  he  must  and  he  did!  And  after 
luncheon  in  the  garden,  with  the  cat  in  his  lap.  Miss 
Greenaway  perceptibly  thawed  out,  and  when  the  editor 
left  late  that  afternoon  he  had  the  promise  of  the  artist 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  227 

that  she  would  do  her  first  magazine  work  for  him. 
That  promise  was  kept  monthly,  and  for  nearly  two 
years  her  articles  appeared,  with  satisfaction  to  Miss 
Greenaway  and  with  great  success  to  the  magazine. 

The  next  opposition  to  Bok's  plans  arose  from  the 
soreness  generated  by  the  absence  of  copyright  laws 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  and  Eu- 
rope. The  editor,  who  had  been  publishing  a  series  of 
musical  compositions,  solicited  the  aid  of  Sir  Arthur 
Sullivan.  But  it  so  happened  that  Sir  Arthur's  most 
famous  composition,  "The  Lost  Chord,"  had  been  taken 
without  leave  by  American  music  publishers,  and  sold 
by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  with  the  composer  left 
out  on  pay-day.  Sir  Arthur  held  forth  on  this  injustice, 
and  said  further  that  no  accurate  copy  of  ''The  Lost 
Chord"  had,  so  far  as  he  knew,  ever  been  printed  in  the 
United  States.  Bok  saw  his  chance,  and  also  an  op- 
portunity for  a  little  Americanization. 

"Very  well.  Sir  Arthur,"  suggested  Bok;  "with  your 
consent,  I  will  rectify  both  the  inaccuracy  and  the  in- 
justice. Write  out  a  correct  version  of  'The  Lost 
Chord';  I  will  give  it  to  nearly  a  million  readers,  and 
so  render  obsolete  the  incorrect  copies;  and  I  shall  be 
only  too  happy  to  pay  you  the  first  honorarium  for  an 
American  publication  of  the  song.  You  can  add  to 
the  copy  the  statement  that  this  is  the  first  American 
honorarium  you  have  ever  received,  and  so  shame  the 
American  pubHshers  for  their  dishonesty." 

This  argument  appealed  strongly  to  the  composer, 
who  made  a  correct  transcript  of  his  famous  song,  and 
pubUshed  it  with  the  following  note: 


2  28    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

This  is  the  first  and  only  copy  of  "The  Lost  Chord"  which 
has  ever  been  sent  by  me  to  an  American  publisher.  I  be- 
lieve all  the  reprints  in  America  are  more  or  less  incorrect. 
I  have  pleasure  in  sending  this  copy  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Ed- 
ward W.  Bok,  for  publication  in  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal 
for  which  he  gives  me  an  honorarium,  the  only  one  1^  have 
ever  received  from  an  American  publisher  for  this  song. 

Arthur  Sullivan. 

At  least,  thought  Bok,  he  had  healed  one  man's  sore- 
ness toward  America.  But  the  next  day  he  encoun- 
tered another.  On  his  way  to  Paris,  he  stopped  at 
Amiens  to  see  Jules  Verne.  Here  he  found  special 
difficulty  in  that  the  aged  author  could  not  speak  Eng- 
lish, and  Bok  knew  only  a  few  words  of  casual  French. 
Finally  a  neighbor's  servant  who  knew  a  handful  of 
English  words  was  commandeered,  and  a  halting  three- 
cornered  conversation  was  begun. 

Bok  found  two  grievances  here:  the  author  was  in- 
censed at  the  American  public  because  it  had  insisted 
on  classing  his  books  as  juveniles,  and  accepting  them 
as  stories  of  adventure,  whereas  he  desired  them  to  be 
recognized  as  prophetic  stories  based  on  scientific  facts — 
an  insistence  which,  as  all  the  world  knows,  has  since 
been  justified.  Bok  explained,  however,  that  the  popu- 
lar acceptance  of  the  author's  books  as  stories  of  ad- 
venture was  by  no  means  confined  to  America;  that 
even  in  his  own  country  the  same  was  true.  But  Jules 
Verne  came  back  with  the  rejoinder  that  if  the  French 
were  a  pack  of  fools,  that  was  no  reason  why  the  Ameri- 
cans should  also  be. 

The  argument  weighed  somewhat  with  the  author, 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  229 

however,  for  he  then  changed  the  conversation,  and 
pointed  out  how  he  had  been  robbed  by  American 
publishers  who  had  stolen  his  books.  So  Bok  was  once 
more  face  to  face  with  the  old  non-copyright  conditions; 
and  although  he  explained  the  existence  then  of  a  new 
protective  law,  the  old  man  was  not  mollified.  He  did 
not  take  kindly  to  Bok's  suggestion  for  new  work,  and 
closed  the  talk,  extremely  difficult  to  all  three,  by  de- 
claring that  his  writing  days  were  over. 

But  Bok  was  by  no  means  through  with  non-copyright 
echoes,  for  he  was  destined  next  day  to  take  part  in  an 
even  stormier  interview  on  the  same  subject  with  Alex- 
ander Dumas  fils.  Bok  had  been  pubUshing  a  series  of 
articles  in  which  authors  had  told  how  they  had  been 
led  to  write  their  most  famous  books,  and  he  wanted 
Dumas  to  tell  ''How  I  Came  to  Write  'Camille.'" 

To  act  as  translator  this  time,  Bok  took  a  trusted 
friend  with  him,  whose  services  he  found  were  needed, 
as  Dumas  was  absolutely  without  knowledge  of  English. 
No  sooner  was  the  editor's  request  made  known  to  him 
than  the  storm  broke.  Dumas,  hotly  excited,  denounced 
the  Americans  as  robbers  who  had  deprived  him  of  his 
rightful  returns  on  his  book  and  play,  and  ended  b\' 
declaring  that  he  would  trust  no  American  editor  or 
publisher. 

The  mutual  friend  explained  the  new  copyright  con- 
ditions and  declared  that  Bok  intended  to  treat  the 
author  honorably.  But  Dumas  was  not  to  be  molli- 
fied. He  launched  forth  upon  a  new  arraignment  of 
the  Americans;  dishonesty  was  t bred  in  their  bones! 
and   they  were  robbers  by  instinct.     All  of  this  dis- 


230  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

tinctly  nettled  Bok's  Americanism.  The  interpreting 
friend  finally  suggested  that  the  article  should  be  writ- 
ten while  Bok  was  in  Paris;  that  he  should  be  notified 
when  the  manuscript  was  ready,  that  he  should  then 
appear  with  the  actual  money  in  hand  in  French  notes; 
and  that  Dumas  should  give  Bok  the  manuscript  when 
Bok  handed  Dumas  the  money. 

''After  I  count  it,"  said  Dumas. 

This  was  the  last  straw ! 

"Pray  ask  him,"  Bok  suggested  to  the  interpreter, 
"what  assurance  I  have  that  he  will  deliver  the  manu- 
script to  me  after  he  has  the  money."  The  friend  pro- 
tested against  translating  this  thrust,  but  Bok  insisted, 
and  Dumas,  not  knowing  what  was  coming,  insisted 
that  the  message  be  given  him.  When  it  was,  the  man 
was  a  study;  he  became  Hvid  with  rage. 

"But,"  persisted  Bok,  "say  to  Monsieur  Dumas  that 
I  have  the  same  privilege  of  distrusting  him  as  he  ap- 
parently has  of  distrusting  me." 

And  Bok  can  still  see  the  violent  gesticulations  of  the 
storming  French  author,  his  face  burning  with  passion- 
ate anger,  as  the  two  left  him. 

Edward  Bok  now  sincerely  hoped  that  his  encounters 
with  the  absence  of  a  law  that  has  been  met  were  at  an  end! 

Rosa  Bonheur,  the  painter  of  "The  Horse  Fair," 
had  been  represented  to  Bok  as  another  recluse  who  was 
as  inaccessible  as  Kate  Greenaway.  He  had  known  of  the 
painter's  intimate  relations  with  the  ex-Empress  Eu- 
genie, and  desired  to  get  these  reminiscences.  Every- 
body dissuaded  him;  but  again  taking  a  French  friend 
he  made  the  journey  to  Fontainebleau,  where  the  artist 
lived  in  a  chateau  in  the  Httle  village  of  By. 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  231 

A  group  of  dogs,  great,  magnificent  tawny  creatures, 
welcomed  the  two  visitors  to  the  chilteau;  and  the  most 
powerful  door  that  Bok  had  ever  seen,  as  securely  bolted 
as  that  of  a  cell,  told  of  the  inaccessibility  of  the  mistress 
of  the  house.  Two  blue-frocked  peasants  explained 
how  impossible  it  was  for  any  one  to  see  their  mistress, 
so  Bok  asked  permission  to  come  in  and  write  her  a  note. 

This  was  granted;  and  then,  as  in  the  case  of  Kate 
Greenaway,  Rosa  Bonheur  herself  walked  into  the  hall, 
in  a  velvet  jacket,  dressed,  as  she  always  was,  in  man's 
attire.  A  delightful  smile  lighted  the  strong  face,  sur- 
mounted by  a  shock  of  gray  hair,  cut  short  at  the  back ; 
and  from  the  moment  of  her  first  welcome  there  was  no 
doubt  of  her  cordiality  to  the  few  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  work  their  way  into  her  presence.  It  was  a 
wonderful  afternoon,  spent  in  the  painter's  studio  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  chateau;  and  Bok  carried  away 
with  him  the  promise  of  Rosa  Bonheur  to  write  the  story 
of  her  life  for  publication  in  the  magazine. 

On  his  return  to  London  the  editor  found  that  Charles 
Dana  Gibson  had  settled  down  there  for  a  time.  Bok 
had  always  wanted  Gibson  to  depict  the  characters  of 
Dickens;  and  he  felt  that  this  was  the  opportunity, 
while  the  artist  was  in  London  and  could  get  the  at- 
mosphere for  his  work.  Gibson  was  as  keen  for  the  idea 
as  was  Bok,  and  so  the  two  arranged  the  series  which 
was  subsequently  published. 

On  his  way  to  his  steamer  to  sail  for  home,  Bok  \isited 
"Ian  Maclaren,"  whose  Bonnie  Brier  Bush  stories  were 
then  in  great  vogue,  and  not  only  contracted  for  Doctor 
Watson's  stories  of  the  immediate  future,  but  arranged 


232   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

with  him  for  a  series  of  articles  which,  for  two  years 
thereafter,  was  pubUshed  in  the  magazine. 

The  editor  now  sailed  for  home,  content  with  his  as- 
sembly of  foreign  "features." 

On  the  steamer,  Bok  heard  of  the  recent  discovery  of 
some  unpublished  letters  by  Louisa  May  Alcott,  written 
to  five  girls,  and  before  returning  to  Philadelphia,  he 
went  to  Boston,  got  into  touch  with  the  executors  of 
the  will  of  Miss  Alcott,  brought  the  letters  back  with 
him  to  read,  and  upon  reaching  Philadelphia,  wired  his 
acceptance  of  them  for  publication. 

But  the  traveller  was  not  at  once  to  enjoy  his  home. 
After  only  a  day  in  Philadelphia  he  took  a  train  for 
IndianapoUs.  Here  lived  the  most  thoroughly  Ameri- 
can writer  of  the  day,  in  Bok's  estimation:  James  Whit- 
comb  Riley.  An  arrangement,  perfected  before  his 
European  visit,  had  secured  to  Bok  practically  exclusive 
rights  to  aU  the  output  of  his  Chicago  friend  Eugene 
Field,  and  he  felt  that  Riley's  work  would  admirably 
complement  that  of  Field.  This  Bok  explained  to  Riley, 
who  readily  fell  in  with  the  idea,  and  the  editor  returned 
to  Philadelphia  with  a  contract  to  see  Riley's  next  dozen 
poems.  A  Uttle  later  Field  passed  away.  His  last 
poem,  "The  Dream  Ship,"  and  his  posthumous  story 
"The  Werewolf"  appeared  in  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal. 

A  second  series  of  articles  was  also  arranged  for  with 
Mr.  Harrison,  in  which  he  was  to  depict,  in  a  personal 
way,  the  Ufe  of  a  President  of  the  United  States,  the 
domestic  Hfe  of  the  White  House,  and  the  financial  ar- 
rangements made  by  the  government  for  the  care  of  the 
chief  executive  and  his  family.     The  first  series  of  articles 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  233 

by  the  former  President  had  been  very  successful;  Bok 
felt  that  they  had  accomplished  much  in  making  his 
women  readers  familiar  with  their  country  and  the 
machinery  of  its  government.  After  this,  which  had 
been  undeniably  solid  reading,  Bok  reasoned  that  the 
supplementary  articles,  in  lighter  vein,  would  serve  as 
a  sort  of  dessert.     And  so  it  proved. 

Bok  now  devoted  his  attention  to  strengthening  the 
fiction  in  his  magazine.  He  sought  Mark  Twain,  and 
bought  his  two  new  stories;  he  secured  from  Bret  Harte 
a  tale  which  he  had  just  finished;  and  then  ran  the  gamut 
of  the  best  fiction  writers  of  the  day,  and  secured  their 
best  output.  Marion  Crawford,  Conan  Doyle,  Sarah 
Ome  Jewett,  John  Kendrick  Bangs,  Kate  Douglas 
Wiggin,  Hamlin  Garland,  Mrs.  Burton  Harrison,  Eliza- 
beth Stuart  Phelps,  Mary  E.  Wilkins,  Jerome  K.  Jerome, 
Anthony  Hope,  Joel  Chandler  Harris,  and  others  fol- 
lowed in  rapid  succession. 

He  next  turned  for  a  moment  to  his  religious  depart- 
ment, decided  that  it  needed  a  freshening  of  interest, 
and  secured  Dwight  L.  Moody,  whose  evangelical  work 
was  then  so  prominently  in  the  public  eye,  to  conduct 
"Mr.  Moody's  Bible  Class"  in  the  magazine — practi- 
cally a  study  of  the  stated  Bible  lesson  of  the  month  with 
explanation  in  Moody's  simple  and  effective  style. 

The  authors  for  whom  the  Journal  was  now  pub- 
lishing attracted  the  attention  of  all  the  writers  of  the 
day,  and  the  supply  of  good  material  became  too  great 
for  its  capacity.  Bok  studied  the  mechanical  make- 
up, and  felt  that  by  some  method  he  must  find  more 
room  in  the  front  portion.     He  had  allotted  the  first 


234   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

third  of  the  magazine  to  the  general  literary  contents 
and  the  latter  two-thirds  to  departmental  features. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  number,  the  departments  nar- 
rowed down  from  full  pages  to  single  colunms  with 
advertisements  on  each  side. 

One  day  Bok  was  handling  a  story  by  Rudyard  Kip- 
ling which  had  overrun  the  space  allowed  for  it  in  the 
front.  The  story  had  come  late,  and  the  rest  of  the  front 
portion  of  the  magazine  had  gone  to  press.  The  editor 
was  in  a  quandary  what  to  do  with  the  two  remaining 
columns  of  the  Kipling  tale.  There  were  only  two  pages 
open,  and  these  were  at  the  back.  He  remade  those 
pages,  and  continued  the  story  from  pages  6  and  7  to 
pages  38  and  39. 

At  once  Bok  saw  that  this  was  an  instance  where 
"necessity  was  the  mother  of  invention."  He  realized 
that  if  he  could  run  some  of  his  front  material  over  to 
the  back  he  would  relieve  the  pressure  at  the  front, 
present  a  more  varied  contents  there,  and  make  his  ad- 
vertisements more  valuable  by  putting  them  next  to 
the  most  expensive  material  in  the  magazine. 

In  the  next  issue  he  combined  some  of  his  smaller 
departments  in  the  back;  and  thus,  in  1896,  he  inaugu- 
rated the  method  of  ''running  over  into  the  back" 
which  has  now  become  a  recognized  principle  in  the 
make-up  of  magazines  of  larger  size.  At  first,  Bok's 
readers  objected,  but  he  explained  why  he  did  it;  that 
they  were  the  benefiters  by  the  plan;  and,  so  far  as 
readers  can  be  satisfied  with  what  is,  at  best,  an  awk- 
ward method  of  presentation,  they  were  content.     To- 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  235 

day  the  practice  is  undoubtedly  followed  to  excess,  some 
magazines  carrying  as  much  as  eighty  and  ninety  columns 
over  from  the  front  to  the  back;  from  such  abuse  it  will, 
of  course,  free  itself  either  by  a  return  to  the  original 
method  of  make-up  or  by  the  adoption  of  some  other 
less-irritating  plan. 

In  his  reading  about  the  America  of  the  past,  Bok 
had  been  impressed  by  the  unusual  amount  of  interest- 
ing personal  material  that  constituted  what  is  termed 
unwritten  history — original  events  of  tremendous  per- 
sonal appeal  in  which  great  personalities  figured  but 
which  had  not  sufficient  historical  importance  to  have 
been  included  in  American  history.  Bok  determined  to 
please  his  older  readers  by  harking  back  to  the  past 
and  at  the  same  time  acquainting  the  younger  genera- 
tion with  the  picturesque  events  which  had  preceded 
their  time. 

He  also  believed  that  if  he  could  "dress  up"  the  past, 
he  could  arrest  the  attention  of  a  generation  which  was 
too  likely  to  boast  of  its  interest  only  in  the  present  and 
the  future.  He  took  a  course  of  reading  and  consulted 
with  Mr.  Charles  A.  Dana,  editor  of  the  New  York  Sun, 
who  had  become  interested  in  his  work  and  had  written 
him  several  voluntary  letters  of  commendation.  Mr. 
Dana  gave  material  help  in  the  selection  of  subjects 
and  writers;  and  was  intensely  amused  and  interested 
by  the  manner  in  which  his  youthful  confrere  ''dressed 
up"  the  titles  of  what  might  otherwise  have  looked  like 
commonplace  articles. 

"I  know,"  said  Bok  to  the  elder  editor,  "it  smacks 


236   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

a  little  of  the  sensational,  Mr.  Dana,  but  the  purpose  I 
have  in  mind  of  showing  the  young  people  of  to-day 
that  some  great  things  happened  before  they  came  on 
the  stage  seems  to  me  to  make  it  worth  while." 

Mr.  Dana  agreed  with  this  view,  supplemented  every 
effort  of  the  Philadelphia  editor  in  several  subsequent 
talks,  and  in  1897  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  began  one 
of  the  most  popular  series  it  ever  published.  It  was 
called  ''Great  Personal  Events,"  and  the  picturesque 
titles  explained  them.  He  first  pictured  the  enthusiastic 
evening  "When  Jenny  Lind  Sang  in  Castle  Garden," 
and,  as  Bok  added  to  pique  curiosity,  "when  people 
paid  $20  to  sit  in  rowboats  to  hear  the  Swedish  night- 
ingale." 

This  was  followed  by  an  account  of  the  astonishing 
episode  "When  Henry  Ward  Beecher  Sold  Slaves  in 
Plymouth  Pulpit";  the  picturesque  journey  "When 
Louis  Kossuth  Rode  Up  Broadway";  the  triumphant 
tour  "When  General  Grant  Went  Round  the  World"; 
the  forgotten  story  of  "When  an  Actress  Was  the  Lady 
of  the  White  House";  the  sensational  striking  of  the 
gold  vein  in  1849,  ''When  Mackay  Struck  the  Great 
Bonanza";  the  hitherto  little-known  instance  "When 
Louis  Philippe  Taught  School  in  Philadelphia";  and 
even  the  lesser-known  fact  of  the  residence  of  the  brother 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  in  America,  "When  the  King 
of  Spain  Lived  on  the  Banks  of  the  Schuylkill";  while 
the  story  of  "When  John  Wesley  Preached  in  Georgia" 
surprised  nearly  every  Methodist,  as  so  few  had  known 
that  the  founder  of  their  church  had  ever  visited  America. 
Each  month  picturesque  event  followed  graphic  hap- 


MEETING  A  REVERSE  OR  TWO  237 

pening,  and  never  was  unwritten  history  more  readily 
read  by  the  young,  or  the  memories  of  the  older  folk 
more  catered  to  than  in  this  series  which  won  new 
friends  for  the  magazine  on  every  hand. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
A  SIGNAL  PIECE  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK 

The  influence  of  his  grandfather  and  the  injunction 
of  his  grandmother  to  her  sons  that  each  "should  make 
the  world  a  better  or  a  more  beautiful  place  to  live  in" 
now  began  to  be  manifest  in  the  grandson.  Edward 
Bok  was  unconscious  that  it  was  this  influence.  What 
directly  led  him  to  the  signal  piece  of  construction  in 
which  he  engaged  was  the  wretched  architecture  of 
small  houses.  As  he  travelled  through  the  United 
States  he  was  appalled  by  it.  Where  the  houses  were 
not  positively  ugly,  they  were,  to  him,  repellently  ornate. 
Money  was  wasted  on  useless  turrets,  filigree  work, 
or  machine-made  ornamentation.  Bok  found  out  that 
these  small  householders  never  employed  an  architect, 
but  that  the  houses  were  put  up  by  builders  from  their 
own  plans. 

Bok  felt  a  keen  desire  to  take  hold  of  the  smaU  Ameri- 
can house  and  make  it  architecturally  better.  He  fore- 
saw, however,  that  the  subject  would  finally  include 
small  gardening  and  interior  decoration.  He  feared  that 
the  subject  would  become  too  large  for  the  magazine, 
which  was  already  feeHng  the  pressure  of  the  material 
which  he  was  securing.  He  suggested,  therefore,  to 
Mr.  Curtis  that  they  purchase  a  little  magazine  pubhshed 

in  Buffalo,  N.  Y. ,  called  Country  Life,  and  develop  it 

238 


A  SIGNAL  PIECE  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    239 

into  a  first-class  periodical  devoted  to  the  general 
subject  of  a  better  American  architecture,  gardening, 
and  interior  decoration,  with  special  application  to  the 
small  house.  The  magazine  was  purchased,  and  while 
Bok  was  collecting  his  material  for  a  number  of  issues 
ahead,  he  edited  and  issued,  for  copyright  purposes, 
a  four-page  magazine. 

An  opportunity  now  came  to  Mr.  Curtis  to  purchase 
The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  a  Philadelphia  weekly  of 
honored  prestige,  founded  by  Benjamin  Franklin.  It 
was  apparent  at  once  that  the  company  could  not  em- 
bark upon  the  development  of  two  magazines  at  the 
same  time,  and  as  a  larger  field  was  seen  for  The  Satur- 
day Evening  Post,  it  was  decided  to  leave  Country  Life 
in  abeyance  for  the  present. 

Mr.  Frank  Doubleday,  having  left  the  Scribners  and 
started  a  publishing-house  of  his  own,  asked  Bok  to 
transfer  to  him  the  copyright  and  good  will  of  Country 
Life — seeing  that  there  was  little  chance  for  The  Curtis 
Publishing  Company  to  undertake  its  publication. 
Mr.  Curtis  was  willing,  but  he  knew  that  Bok  had  set 
his  heart  on  the  new  magazine  and  left  it  for  him  to 
decide.  The  editor  realized,  as  the  Doubleday  Company 
could  take  up  the  magazine  at  once,  the  unfairness  of 
holding  indefinitely  the  field  against  them  by  the  pub- 
lication of  a  mere  copyright  periodical.  And  so,  with 
a  feeling  as  if  he  were  giving  up  his  child  to  another 
father,  Bok  arranged  that  The  Curtis  Publishing  Com- 
pany should  transfer  to  the  Doubleday,  Page  Company 
all  rights  to  the  title  and  periodical  of  which  the  present 
beautiful  publication  Country  Life  is  the  outgrowth. 


240  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Bok  now  turned  to  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  as  his 
medium  for  making  the  small-house  architecture  of 
America  better.  He  realized  the  limitation  of  space, 
but  decided  to  do  the  best  he  could  under  the  circum- 
stances. He  believed  he  might  serve  thousands  of  his 
readers  if  he  could  make  it  possible  for  them  to  secure, 
at  moderate  cost,  plans  for  well-designed  houses  by  the 
leading  domestic  architects  in  the  country.  He  con- 
sulted a  number  of  architects,  only  to  find  them  unalter- 
ably opposed  to  the  idea.  They  disliked  the  publicity 
of  magazine  presentation;  prices  differed  too  much  in 
various  parts  of  the  country;  and  they  did  not  care 
to  risk  the  criticism  of  their  contemporaries.  It  was 
"cheapening"  their  profession! 

Bok  saw  that  he  should  have  to  blaze  the  way  and 
demonstrate  the  futility  of  these  arguments.  At  last  he 
persuaded  one  architect  to  co-operate  with  him,  and  in 
1895  began  the  pubhcation  of  a  series  of  houses  which 
could  be  built,  approximately,  for  from  one  thousand 
five  hundred  dollars  to  five  thousand  dollars.  The  idea 
attracted  attention  at  once,  and  the  architect-author  was 
swamped  with  letters  and  inquiries  regarding  his  plans. 

This  proved  Bok's  instinct  to  be  correct  as  to  the  public 
willingness  to  accept  such  designs;  upon  this  proof  he 
succeeded  in  winning  over  two  additional  architects  to 
make  plans.  He  offered  his  readers  full  building  specifi- 
cations and  plans  to  scale  of  the  houses  with  estimates 
from  four  builders  in  different  parts  of  the  United 
States  for  five  dollars  a  set.  The  plans  and  specifica- 
tions were  so  complete  in  every  detail  that  any  builder 
could  build  the  house  from  them. 


THE  GRANDMOTHER 

Who  counselled  each  of  her  children  to  make  the  world  a  better  and  more  beautiful  place 

to  live  in — a  counsel  which  is  now  l)ciny  carried  on  by  her  grandchildren, 

one  of  whom  is  Edward  Bok 


A  SIGNAL  PIECE  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    241 

A  storm  of  criticism  now  arose  from  architects  and 
builders  all  over  the  country,  the  architects  claiming 
that  Bok  was  taking  "the  bread  out  of  their  mouths" 
by  the  sale  of  plans,  and  local  builders  vigorously  ques- 
tioned the  accuracy  of  the  estimates.  But  Bok  knew  he 
was  right  and  persevered. 

Slowly  but  surely  he  won  the  approval  of  the  leading 
architects,  who  saw  that  he  was  appealing  to  a  class  of 
house-builders  who  could  not  afford  to  pay  an  archi- 
tect's fee,  and  that,  with  his  wide  circulation,  he  might 
become  an  influence  for  better  architecture  through  these 
small  houses.  The  sets  of  plans  and  specifications  sold 
by  the  thousands.  It  was  not  long  before  the  magazine 
was  able  to  present  small-house  plans  by  the  foremost 
architects  of  the  country,  whose  services  the  average 
householder  could  otherwise  never  have  dreamed  of 
securing. 

Bok  not  only  saw  an  opportunity  to  better  the  exterior 
of  the  small  houses,  but  he  determined  that  each  plan 
published  should  provide  for  two  essentials:  every  ser- 
vant's room  should  have  two  windows  to  insure  cross- 
ventilation,  and  contain  twice  the  number  of  cubic  feet 
usually  given  to  such  rooms;  and  in  place  of  the  Amer- 
ican parlor,  which  he  considered  a  useless  room,  should 
be  substituted  either  a  living-room  or  a  library.  He 
did  not  point  to  these  improvements;  every  plan  simply 
presented  the  larger  servant's  room  and  did  not  present 
a  parlor.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  of  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  plans  sold,  not  a  purchaser  ever  noticed  the 
absence  of  a  parlor  except  one  woman  in  Brookhne, 
Mass.,  who,  in  erecting  a  group  of  twenty-five  ^^  Journal 


242    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

houses,"  discovered  after  she  had  built  ten  that  not  one 
contained  a  parlor ! 

"Ladies'  Home  Journal  houses"  were  now  going  up  in 
communities  all  over  the  country,  and  Bok  determined 
to  prove  that  they  could  be  erected  for  the  prices  given. 
Accordingly,  he  published  a  prize  ofifer  of  generous 
amount  for  the  best  set  of  exterior  and  interior  photo- 
graphs of  a  house  built  after  a  Journal  plan  within  the 
published  price.  Five  other  and  smaller  prizes  were 
also  offered.  A  legally  attested  builder's  declaration 
was  to  accompany  each  set  of  photographs.  The  sets 
immediately  began  to  come  in,  until  over  five  thousand 
had  been  received.  Bok  selected  the  best  of  these, 
awarded  the  prizes,  and  began  the  presentation  of  the 
houses  actually  built  after  the  published  plans. 

Of  course  this  pubHcation  gave  fresh  impetus  to  the 
whole  scheme;  prospective  house-builders  pointed  their 
builders  to  the  proof  given,  and  additional  thousands  of 
sets  of  plans  were  sold.  The  little  houses  became  better 
and  better  in  architecture  as  the  series  went  on,  and  oc- 
casionally a  plan  for  a  house  costing  as  high  as  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  was  given. 

For  nearly  twenty-five  years  Bok  continued  to  pub- 
lish pictures  of  houses  and  plans.  Entire  colonies  of 
"Ladies'  Home  Journal  houses"  have  sprung  up,  and 
building  promoters  have  built  complete  suburban  de- 
velopments with  them.  How  many  of  these  homes  have 
been  erected  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  say;  the  num- 
ber certainly  runs  into  the  thousands. 

It  was  one  of  the  most  constructive  and  far-reaching 
pieces  of  work  that  Bok  did  during  his  editorial  career — • 
a  fact  now  recognized  by  all  architects.    Shortly  before 


••••••••••••••)•••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 


A  SIGNAL  PIECE  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    243 

Stanford  White  passed  away,  he  wrote:  "I  firmly  be- 
lieve that  Edward  Bok  has  more  completely  influenced 
American  domestic  architecture  for  the  better  than  any 
man  in  this  generation.  When  he  began,  I  was  short- 
sighted enough  to  discourage  him,  and  refused  to  co- 
operate with  him.  If  Bok  came  to  me  now,  I  would  not 
only  make  plans  for  him,  but  I  would  waive  any  fee  for 
them  in  retribution  for  my  early  mistake." 

Bok  then  turned  to  the  subject  of  the  garden  for  the 
small  house,  and  the  development  of  the  grounds  around 
the  homes  which  he  had  been  instrumental  in  putting  on 
the  earth.  He  encountered  no  opposition  here.  The 
publication  of  small  gardens  for  small  houses  finally  ran 
into  hundreds  of  pages,  the  magazine  supplying  planting 
plans  and  full  directions  as  to  when  and  how  to  plant — 
this  time  without  cost. 

Next  the  editor  decided  to  see  what  he  could  do  for 
the  better  and  simpler  furnishing  of  the  small  American 
home.  Here  was  a  field  almost  limitless  in  possible  im- 
provement, but  he  wanted  to  approach  it  in  a  new  way. 
The  best  method  baflied  him  until  one  day  he  met  a 
woman  friend  who  told  him  that  she  was  on  her  way  to  a 
funeral  at  a  friend's  home. 

"I  didn't  know  you  were  so  well  acquainted  with  Mrs. 
S ,"  said  Bok. 

*'I  wasn't,  as  a  matter  of  fact,"  replied  the  woman. 
"I'll  be  perfectly  frank;  I  am  going  to  the  funeral  just 

to  see  how  Mrs.  S 's  house  is  furnished.    She  was 

always  thought  to  have  great  taste,  you  know,  and, 
whether  you  know  it  or  not,  a  woman  is  always  keen  to 
look  into  another  woman's  home." 

Bok  reaHzed  that  he  had  found  the  method  of  pres- 


244  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

entation  for  his  interior-furnishing  plan  if  he  could  se- 
cure photographs  of  the  most  carefully  furnished  homes 
in  America.  He  immediately  employed  the  best  avail- 
able expert,  and  within  six  months  there  came  to  him  an 
assorted  collection  of  over  a  thousand  photographs  of 
well-furnished  rooms.  The  best  were  selected,  and  a 
series  of  photographic  pages  called  "Inside  of  loo 
Homes"  was  begun.  The  editor's  woman  friend  had 
correctly  pointed  the  way  to  him,  for  this  series  won  for 
his  magazine  the  enviable  distinction  of  being  the  first 
magazine  of  standing  to  reach  the  then  marvellous  record 
of  a  circulation  of  one  million  copies  a  month.  The  edi- 
tions containing  the  series  were  sold  out  as  fast  as  they 
could  be  printed. 

The  editor  followed  this  up  with  another  successful 
series,  again  pictorial.  He  realized  that  to  explain  good 
taste  in  furnishing  by  text  was  almost  impossible.  So 
he  started  a  series  of  all-picture  pages  called  "Good 
Taste  and  Bad  Taste."  He  presented  a  chair  that  was 
bad  in  lines  and  either  useless  or  uncomfortable  to  sit 
in,  and  explained  where  and  why  it  was  bad;  and  then 
put  a  good  chair  next  to  it.  and  ex-plained  where  and 
why  it  was  good. 

The  lesson  to  the  eye  was  simply  and  directly  effec- 
tive; the  pictures  told  their  story  as  no  printed  word 
could  have  done,  and  furniture  manufacturers  and 
dealers  all  over  the  country,  feeling  the  pressure  from 
their  customers,  began  to  put  on  the  market  the  tables, 
chairs,  divans,  bedsteads,  and  dressing-tables  which  the 
magazine  was  portraying  ^s  examples  of  good  taste. 
It  was  amazing  that,  within  five  years,  the  physical  ap- 


A  SIGNAL  PIECE  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK     245 

pearance  of  domestic  furniture  in  the  stores  completely 
changed. 

The  next  undertaking  was  a  systematic  plan  for  im- 
proving the  pictures  on  the  walls  of  the  American  home. 
Bok  was  employing  the  best  artists  of  the  day:  Edwin 
A.  Abbey,  Howard  Pyle,  Charles  Dana  Gibson,  W.  L. 
Taylor,  Albert  Lynch,  Will  H.  Low,  W.  T.  Smedley, 
Irving  R.  Wiles,  and  others.  As  his  magazine  was 
rolled  to  go  through  the  mails,  the  pictures  naturally 
suffered;  Bok  therefore  decided  to  print  a  special 
edition  of  each  important  picture  that  he  published,  an 
edition  on  plate-paper,  without  text,  and  offered  to  his 
readers  at  ten  cents  a  copy.  Within  a  year  he  had  sold 
nearly  one  hundred  thousand  copies,  such  pictures  as 
W.  L.  Taylor's  ''The  Hanging  of  the  Crane"  and 
''Home-Keeping  Hearts"  being  particularly  popular. 

Pictures  were  difficult  to  advertise  successfully;  it 
was  before  the  full-color  press  had  become  practicable 
for  rapid  magazine  work;  and  even  the  large-page 
black-and-white  reproductions  which  Bok  could  give  in 
his  magazine  did  not,  of  course,  show  the  beauty  of  the 
original  paintings,  the  majority  of  which  were  in  full 
color.  He  accordingly  made  arrangements  with  art 
pubhshers  to  print  his  pictures  in  their  original  col- 
ors; then  he  determined  to  give  the  public  an  oppor- 
tunity to  see  what  the  pictures  themselves  looked  like. 

He  asked  his  art  editor  to  select  the  two  hundred  and 
fifty  best  pictures  and  frame  them.  Then  he  engaged 
the  art  gallery  of  the  Philadelphia  Art  Club,  and  ad- 
vertised an  exhibition  of  the  original  paintings.  No 
admission  was  charged.    The  gallery  was  put  into  gala 


246   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

attire,  and  the  pictures  were  well  hung.  The  exhibition, 
which  was  continued  for  two  weeks,  was  visited  by  over 
fifteen  thousand  persons. 

His  success  here  induced  Bok  to  take  the  collection 
to  New  York.  The  galleries  of  the  American  Art  As- 
sociation were  offered  him,  but  he  decided  to  rent  the 
ballroom  of  the  Hotel  Waldorf.  The  hotel  was  then 
new;  it  was  the  talk  not  only  of  the  town  but  of  the 
country,  while  the  ballroom  had  been  pictured  far  and 
wide.  It  would  have  a  publicity  value.  He  could  secure 
the  room  for  only  four  days,  but  he  determined  to  make 
the  most  of  the  short  time.  The  exhibition  was  well 
advertised;  a  "private  view"  was  given  the  evening 
before  the  opening  day,  and  when,  at  nine  o'clock  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  the  doors  of  the  exhibition  were  thrown 
open,  over  a  thousand  persons  were  waiting  in  line. 

The  hotel  authorities  had  to  resort  to  a  special  cordon 
of  police  to  handle  the  crowds,  and  within  four  days  over 
seventeen  thousand  persons  had  seen  the  pictures.  On 
the  last  evening  it  was  after  midnight  before  the  doors 
could  be  closed  to  the  waiting-line.  Boston  was  next 
visited,  and  there,  at  the  Art  Club  Gallery,  the  pre- 
vious successes  were  repeated.  Within  two  weeks  over 
twenty-eight  thousand  persons  visited  the  exhibition. 

Other  cities  now  clamored  for  a  sight  of  the  pictures, 
and  it  was  finally  decided  to  end  the  exhibitions  by  a 
visit  to  Chicago.  The  success  here  exceeded  that  in  any 
of  the  other  cities.  The  banquet-hall  of  the  Auditorium 
Hotel  had  been  engaged;  over  two  thousand  persons  were 
continually  in  a  waiting-line  outside,  and  within  a  week 
nearly  thirty  thousand  persons  pushed  and  jostled  them- 


A  SIGNAL  PIECE  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    247 

selves  into  the  gallery.  Over  eighty  thousand  persons 
in  all  had  viewed  the  pictures  in  the  four  cities. 

The  exhibition  was  immediately  followed  by  the  pub- 
Hcation  of  a  portfolio  of  the  ten  pictures  that  had  proved 
the  greatest  favorites.  These  were  printed  on  plate- 
paper  and  the  portfolio  was  offered  by  Bok  to  his  read- 
ers for  one  dollar.  The  first  thousand  sets  were  ex- 
hausted within  a  fortnight.  A  second  thousand  were 
printed,  and  these  were  quickly  sold  out. 

Bok's  next  enterprise  was  to  get  his  pictures  into  the 
homes  of  the  country  on  a  larger  scale;  he  determined 
to  work  through  the  churches.  He  selected  the  fifty 
best  pictures,  made  them  into  a  set  and  offered  first 
a  hundred  sets  to  selected  schools,  which  were  at  once 
taken.  Then  he  offered  two  hundred  and  fifty  sets  to 
churches  to  sell  at  their  fairs.  The  managers  were  to 
promise  to  erect  a  Ladies^  Home  Journal  booth  (which 
Bok  knew,  of  course,  would  be  most  effective  advertis- 
ing), and  the  pictures  were  to  sell  at  twenty- five  and  fifty 
cents  each,  with  some  at  a  dollar  each.  The  set  was 
offered  to  the  churches  for  five  dollars:  the  actual  cost 
of  reproduction  and  expressage.  On  the  day  after  the 
publication  of  the  magazine  containing  the  offer,  enough 
telegraphic  orders  were  received  to  absorb  the  entire 
edition.  A  second  edition  was  immediately  printed; 
and  finally  ten  editions,  four  thousand  sets  in  all,  were 
absorbed  before  the  demand  was  filled.  By  this  method, 
two  hundred  thousand  pictures  had  been  introduced 
into  American  homes,  and  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  in  money  had  been  raised  by  the 
churches  as  their  portion. 


248  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

But  all  this  was  simply  to  lead  up  to  the  realization  of 
Bok's  cherished  dream:  the  reproduction,  in  enormous 
numbers,  of  the  greatest  pictures  in  the  world  in  their 
original  colors.  The  plan,  however,  was  not  for  the 
moment  feasible:  the  cost  of  the  four-color  process  was 
at  that  time  prohibitive,  and  Bok  had  to  abandon  it. 
But  he  never  lost  sight  of  it.  He  knew  the  hour  would 
come  when  he  could  carry  it  out,  and  he  bided  his 
time. 

It  was  not  until  years  later  that  his  opportunity  came, 
when  he  immediately  made  up  his  mind  to  seize  it.  The 
magazine  had  installed  a  battery  of  four-color  presses; 
the  color-work  in  the  periodical  was  attracting  universal 
attention,  and  after  all  stages  of  experimentation  had 
been  passed,  Bok  decided  to  make  his  dream  a  reality. 
He  sought  the  co-operation  of  the  owners  of  the  greatest 
private  art  galleries  in  the  country :  J.  Pierpont  Morgan, 
Henry  C.  Frick,  Joseph  E.  Widener,  George  W.  Elkins, 
John  G.  Johnson,  Charles  P.  Taft,  Mrs.  John  L,  Gardner, 
Charles  L.  Freer,  Mrs.  Havemeyer,  and  the  owners 
of  the  Benjamin  Altman  Collection,  and  sought  permis- 
sion to  reproduce  their  greatest  paintings. 

Although  each  felt  doubtful  of  the  ability  of  any  proc- 
ess adequately  to  reproduce  their  masterpieces,  the 
owners  heartily  co-operated  with  Bok.  But  Bok's  co- 
editors  discouraged  his  plan,  since  it  would  involve 
endless  labor,  the  exclusive  services  of  a  corps  of  pho- 
tographers and  engravers,  and  the  employment  of  the 
most  careful  pressmen  available  in  the  United  States. 
The  editor  realized  that  the  obstacles  were  numerous 


A  SIGNAL  PIECE  OF  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    249 

and  that  the  expense  would  be  enormous;  but  he  felt 
sure  that  the  American  public  was  ready  for  his  idea. 
And  early  in  191 2  he  announced  his  series  and  began 
its  publication. 

The  most  wonderful  Rembrandt,  Velasquez,  Turner, 
Hobbema,  Van  Dyck,  Raphael,  Frans  Hals,  Romney, 
Gainsborough,  Whistler,  Corot,  Mauve,  Vermeer,  Fra- 
gonard,  Botticelli,  and  Titian  reproductions  followed  in 
such  rapid  succession  as  fairly  to  daze  the  magazine 
readers.  Four  pictures  were  given  in  each  number,  and 
the  faithfulness  of  the  reproductions  astonished  even  their 
owners.  The  success  of  the  series  was  beyond  Bok's 
own  best  hopes.  He  was  printing  and  selling  one  and 
three-quarter  million  copies  of  each  issue  of  his  magazine; 
and  before  he  was  through  he  had  presented  to  American 
homes  throughout  the  breadth  of  the  country  over 
seventy  million  reproductions  of  forty  separate  master- 
pieces of  art. 

The  dream  of  years  had  come  true. 

Bok  had  begun  with  the  exterior  of  the  small  Ameri- 
can house  and  made  an  impression  upon  it;  he  had 
brought  the  love  of  flowers  into  the  hearts  of  thousands 
of  small  householders  who  had  never  thought  they 
could  have  an  artistic  garden  within  a  small  area;  he 
had  changed  the  Hues  of  furniture,  and  he  had  put  better 
art  on  the  walls  of  these  homes.  He  had  conceived  a 
full-rounded  scheme,  and  he  had  carried  it  out. 

It  was  a  peculiar  satisfaction  to  Bok  that  Theodore 
Roosevelt  once  summed  up  this  piece  of  work  in  these 
words:    **Bok  is  the  only  man  I  ever  heard  of  who 


250  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

changed,  for  the  better,  the  architecture  of  an  entire 
nation,  and  he  did  it  so  quickly  and  yet  so  effectively 
that  we  didn't  know  it  was  begun  before  it  was  finished. 
That  is  a  mighty  big  job  for  one  man  to  have  done." 


CHAPTER  XXII 

AN  ADVENTURE  IN  CIVIC  AND   PRIVATE  ART 

Edward  Bok  now  turned  his  attention  to  those  in- 
fluences of  a  more  public  nature  which  he  felt  could 
contribute  to  elevate  the  standard  of  public  taste. 

He  was  surprised,  on  talking  with  furnishers  of  homes, 
to  learn  to  what  extent  women  whose  husbands  had 
recently  acquired  means  would  refer  to  certain  styles  of 
decoration  and  hangings  which  they  had  seen  in  the 
Pullman  parlor-cars.  He  had  never  seriously  regarded 
the  influence  of  the  furnishing  of  these  cars  upon  the 
travelling  public;  now  he  realized  that,  in  a  decorative 
sense,  they  were  a  distinct  factor  and  a  very  unfortunate 
one. 

For  in  those  days,  twenty  years  ago,  the  decoration  of 
the  Pullman  parlor-car  was  atrocious.  Colors  were  in 
riotous  discord;  every  foot  of  wood-panelling  was  carved 
and  ornamented,  nothing  being  left  of  the  grain  of  even 
the  most  beautiful  woods;  gilt  was  recklessly  laid  on 
everywhere  regardless  of  its  fitness  or  relation.  The 
hangings  in  the  cars  were  not  only  in  bad  taste,  but  dis- 
tinctly unsanitary;  the  heaviest  velvets  and  showiest 
plushes  were  used;  mirrors  with  bionzed  and  red- 
plushed  frames  were  the  order  of  the  day;  cord  portieres, 
lambrequins,  and  tasselled  fringes  were  still  in  vogue 
in  these  cars.  It  was  a  veritable  riot  of  the  worst  con- 
ceivable ideas;    and  it  was  this  standard   that  these 

251 


252   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

women  of  the  new-money  class  were  accepting  and  in- 
troducing into  their  homes ! 

Bok  wrote  an  editorial  calling  attention  to  these 
facts.  The  Pullman  Company  paid  no  attention  to  it, 
but  the  railroad  journals  did.  With  one  accord  they 
seized  the  cudgel  which  Bok  had  raised,  and  a  series 
of  hammerings  began.  The  Pullman  conductors  be- 
gan to  report  to  their  division  chiefs  that  the  passengers 
were  criticising  the  cars,  and  the  company  at  last  woke 
up.  It  issued  a  cynical  rejoinder;  whereupon  Bok 
wrote  another  editorial,  and  the  railroad  journals  once 
more  joined  in  the  chorus. 

The  president  of  a  large  Western  railroad  wrote  to 
Bok  that  he  agreed  absolutely  with  his  position,  and 
asked  whether  he  had  any  definite  suggestions  to  offer 
for  the  improvement  of  some  new  cars  which  they  were 
about  to  order.  Bok  engaged  two  of  the  best  architects 
and  decorators  in  the  country,  and  submitted  the  re- 
sults to  the  officials  of  the  railroad  company,  who  ap- 
proved of  them  heartily.  The  Pullman  Company  did 
not  take  very  kindly,  however,  to  suggestions  thus 
brought  to  them.  But  a  current  had  been  started;  the 
attention  of  the  travelling  pubhc  had  been  drawn  for 
the  first  time  to  the  wretched  decoration  of  the  cars; 
and  public  sentiment  was  beginning  to  be  vocal. 

The  first  change  came  when  a  new  dining-car  on  the 
Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  Railroad  suddenly 
appeared.  It  was  an  artistically  treated  Flemish-oak- 
panelled  car  with  longitudinal  beams  and  cross-beams, 
giving  the  impression  of  a  ceiling-beamed  room.  Be- 
tween the  "beams"  was  a  quiet  tone  of  deep  yellow. 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  CIVIC  AND  PRIVATE  ART    253 

The  sides  of  the  car  were  wainscoting  of  plain  surface 
done  in  a  Flemish  stain  rubbed  down  to  a  dull  finish. 
The  grain  of  the  wood  was  allowed  to  serve  as  decora- 
tion; there  was  no  carving.  The  whole  tone  of  the  car 
was  that  of  the  rich  color  of  the  sunflower.  The  efifect 
upon  the  travelling  public  was  instantaneous.  Every 
passenger  commented  favorably  on  the  car. 

The  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  F€  Railroad  now 
followed  suit  by  introducing  a  new  Pullman  chair-car. 
The  hideous  and  germ-laden  plush  or  velvet  curtains 
were  gone,  and  leather  hangings  of  a  rich  tone  took 
their  place.  All  the  grill-work  of  a  bygone  age  was 
missing;  likewise  the  rope  curtains.  The  woods  were 
left  to  show  the  grain;  no  carving  was  visible  anywhere. 
The  car  was  a  relief  to  the  eye,  beautiful  and  simple, 
and  easy  to  keep  clean.  Again  the  public  observed,  and 
expressed  its  pleasure. 

The  Pullman  people  now  saw  the  drift,  and  wisely 
reorganized  their  decorative  department.  Only  those 
who  remember  the  Pullman  parlor-car  of  twenty  years 
ago  can  realize  how  long  a  step  it  is  from  the  atrociously 
decorated,  unsanitary  vehicle  of  that  day  to  the  simple 
car  of  to-day. 

It  was  only  a  step  from  the  Pullman  car  to  the 
landscape  outside,  and  Bok  next  decided  to  see  what 
he  could  do  toward  eliminating  the  hideous  bill-board 
advertisements  which  defaced  the  landscape  along  the 
lines  of  the  principal  roads.  He  found  a  willing  ally  in 
this  idea  in  Mr.  J.  Horace  McFarland,  of  Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania,  one  of  the  most  skilful  photographers  in 
the  country,  and  the  president  of  The  American  Civic 


254  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Association.  McFarland  and  Bok  worked  together; 
they  took  innumerable  photographs,  and  began  to  pub- 
lish them,  calling  public  attention  to  the  intrusion  upon 
the  public  eye. 

Page  after  page  appeared  in  the  magazine,  and  after 
a  few  months  these  roused  public  discussion  as  to  legal 
control  of  this  class  of  advertising.  Bok  meanwhile 
called  the  attention  of  women's  clubs  and  other  civic 
organizations  to  the  question,  and  urged  that  they  clean 
their  towns  of  the  obnoxious  bill-boards.  Legislative 
measures  regulating  the  size,  character,  and  location  of 
bill-boards  were  introduced  in  various  States,  a  tax  on 
each  bill-board  was  suggested  in  other  States,  and  the 
agitation  began  to  bear  fruit. 

Bok  now  called  upon  his  readers  in  general  to  help  by 
offering  a  series  of  prizes  totalling  several  thousands  of 
dollars  for  two  photographs,  one  showing  a  fence,  barn, 
or  outbuilding  painted  with  an  advertisement  or  having 
a  bill-board  attached  to  it,  or  a  field  with  a  bill-board  in 
it,  and  a  second  photograph  of  the  same  spot  showing 
the  advertisement  removed,  with  an  accompanying  affi- 
davit of  the  owner  of  the  property,  legally  attested, 
asserting  that  the  advertisement  had  been  permanently 
removed.  Hundreds  of  photographs  poured  in,  scores 
of  prizes  were  awarded,  the  results  were  published,  and 
requests  came  in  for  a  second  series  of  prizes,  which  were 
duly  awarded. 

While  Bok  did  not  solve  the  problem  of  bill-board  ad- 
vertising, and  while  in  some  parts  of  the  country  it  is 
a  more  flagrant  nuisance  to-day  than  ever  before,  he 
had  started  the  first  serious  agitation  against  bill-board 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  CIVIC  AND  PRIVATE  ART    255 

advertising  of  bad  design,  detrimental,  from  its  location, 
to  landscape  beauty.  He  succeeded  in  getting  rid  of  a 
huge  bill-board  which  had  been  placed  at  the  most  pic- 
turesque spot  at  Niagara  Falls;  and  hearing  of  "the 
largest  advertisement  sign  in  the  world"  to  be  placed  on 
the  rim  of  the  Grand  Canyon  of  the  Colorado,  he  notified 
the  advertisers  that  a  photograph  of  the  sign,  if  it  was 
erected,  would  be  immediately  published  in  the  magazine 
and  the  attention  of  the  women  of  America  called  to  the 
defacement  of  one  of  the  most  impressive  and  beautiful 
scenes  in  the  world.  The  article  to  be  advertised  was  a 
household  commodity,  purchased  by  women;  and  the 
owners  realized  that  the  proposed  advertisement  would 
not  be  to  the  benefit  of  their  product.  The  sign  was 
abandoned. 

Of  course  the  advertisers  whose  signs  were  shown  in 
the  magazine  immediately  threatened  the  withdrawal  of 
their  accounts  from  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal,  and  the 
proposed  advertiser  at  the  Grand  Canyon,  whose  busi- 
ness was  conspicuous  in  each  number  of  the  magazine, 
became  actively  threatening.  But  Bok  contended  that 
the  one  proposition  had  absolutely  no  relation  to  the 
other,  and  that  if  concerns  advertised  in  the  magazine 
simply  on  the  basis  of  his  editorial  policy  toward  bill- 
board advertising,  it  was,  to  say  the  least,  not  a  sound 
basis  for  advertising.  No  advertising  account  was  ever 
actually  withdrawn. 

In  their  travels  about,  Mr.  McFarland  and  Bok  began 
to  note  the  disreputably  untidy  spots  which  various 
municipalities  allowed  in  the  closest  proximity  to  the 
centre  of  their  business  life,  in  the  most  desirable  resi- 


256  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

dential  sections,  and  often  adjacent  to  the  most  im- 
portant municipal  buildings  and  parks.  It  was  decided 
to  select  a  dozen  cities,  pick  out  the  most  flagrant  in- 
stances of  spots  which  were  not  only  an  eyesore  and  a 
disgrace  from  a  municipal  standpoint,  but  a  menace  to 
health  and  meant  a  depreciation  of  real-estate  value. 

Lynn,  Massachusetts,  was  the  initial  city  chosen,  a 
number  of  photographs  were  taken,  and  the  first  of  a 
series  of  "Dirty  Cities"  was  begun  in  the  magazine. 
The  effect  was  instantaneous.  The  people  of  Lynn  rose 
in  protest,  and  the  municipal  authorities  threatened  suit 
against  the  magazine;  the  local  newspapers  were  virulent 
in  their  attacks.  Without  warning,  they  argued,  Bok 
had  held  up  their  city  to  disgrace  before  the  entire 
country;  the  attack  was  unwarranted;  in  bad  taste; 
every  citizen  in  Lynn  should  thereafter  cease  to  buy  the 
magazine,  and  so  the  criticisms  ran.  In  answer  Bok 
merely  pointed  to  the  photographs;  to  the  fact  that  the 
camera  could  not  lie,  and  that  if  he  had  misrepresented 
conditions  he  was  ready  to  make  amends. 

Of  course  the  facts  could  not  be  gainsaid;  local  pride 
was  aroused,  and  as  a  result  not  only  were  the  adver- 
tised "dirty  spots"  cleaned  up,  but  the  municipal  au- 
thorities went  out  and  hunted  around  for  other  spots 
in  the  city,  not  knowing  what  other  photographs  Bok 
might  have  had  taken. 

Trenton,  New  Jersey,  was  the  next  example,  and  the 
same  storm  of  public  resentment  broke  loose — with  ex- 
actly the  same  beneficial  results  in  the  end  to  the  city. 
Wilkes-Barre,  Pennsylvania,  was  the  third  one  of  Ameri- 
ca's "dirty  cities."    Here  public  anger  rose  particularly 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  CIVIC  AND  PRIVATE  ART    257 

high,  the  magazine  practically  being  barred  from  the 
news-stands.  But  again  the  result  was  to  the  lasting 
benefit  of  the  community. 

Memphis,  Tennessee,  came  next,  but  here  a  different 
spirit  was  met.  Although  some  resentment  was  ex- 
pressed, the  general  feeling  was  that  a  service  had  been 
rendered  the  city,  and  that  the  only  wise  and  practical 
solution  was  for  the  city  to  meet  the  situation.  The 
result  here  was  a  group  of  municipal  buildings  costing 
milUons  of  dollars,  photographs  of  which  The  Ladies^ 
Home  Journal  subsequently  pubUshed  with  gratification 
to  itself  and  to  the  people  of  Memphis. 

Cities  throughout  the  country  now  began  to  look 
around  to  see  whether  they  had  dirty  spots  within  their 
limits,  not  knowing  when  the  McFarland  photographers 
might  visit  them.  Bok  received  letters  from  various 
municipalities  calling  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  they 
were  cognizant  of  spots  in  their  cities  and  were  cleaning 
up,  and  asking  that,  if  he  had  photographs  of  these 
spots,  they  should  not  be  published. 

It  happened  that  in  two  such  instances  Bok  had  al- 
ready prepared  sets  of  photographs  for  publication. 
These  he  sent  to  the  mayors  of  the  respective  cities, 
stating  that  if  they  would  return  them  with  an  addi- 
tional set  showing  the  spots  cleaned  up  there  would  be 
no  occasion  for  their  publication.  In  both  cases  this 
was  done.  Atlanta,  Georgia;  New  Haven,  Connecti- 
cut; Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati,  and  finally  Bok's  own  city 
of  Philadelphia  were  duly  chronicled  in  the  magazine; 
local  storms  broke  and  calmed  down — with  the  spots  in 
every  instance  improved. 


2S8  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

It  was  an  interesting  experiment  in  photographic 
civics.  The  pity  of  it  is  that  more  has  not  been  done 
along  this  and  similar  lines. 

The  time  now  came  when  Bok  could  demonstrate  the 
willingness  of  his  own  publishing  company  to  do  what 
it  could  to  elevate  the  public  taste  in  art.  With  the 
increasing  circulation  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  and 
of  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  the  business  of  the  com- 
pany had  grown  to  such  dimensions  that  in  1908  plans 
for  a  new  building  were  started.  For  purposes  of  air 
and  light  the  vicinity  of  Independence  Square  was  se- 
lected. Mr.  Curtis  purchased  an  entire  city  block  facing 
the  square,  and  the  present  huge  but  beautiful  pubHca- 
tion  building  was  conceived. 

Bok  strongly  believed  that  good  art  should  find  a 
place  in  public  buildings  where  large  numbers  of  persons 
might  find  easy  access  to  it.  The  proximity  of  the  pro- 
posed new  structure  to  historic  Independence  Hall  and 
the  adjacent  buildings  would  make  it  a  focal  point  for 
visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  the  world. 
The  opportunity  presented  itself  to  put  good  art,  within 
the  comprehension  of  a  large  public,  into  the  new  build- 
ing, and  Bok  asked  permission  of  Mr.  Curtis  to  intro- 
duce a  strong  note  of  mural  decoration.  The  idea  com- 
mended itself  to  Mr.  Curtis  as  adding  an  attraction  to 
the  building  and  a  contribution  to  public  art. 

The  great  public  dining-room,  seating  over  seven  hun- 
dred persons,  on  the  top  floor  of  the  building,  affording 
unusual  lighting  facilities,  was  first  selected;  and  Max- 
field  Parrish  was  engaged  to  paint  a  series  of  seventeen 
panels  to  fill  the  large  spaces  between  the  windows  and 


—    "3 


<     S 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  CIVIC  AND  PRIVATE  ART    259 

an  unusually  large  wall  space  at  the  end  of  the  room. 
Parrish  contracted  to  give  up  all  other  work  and  devote 
himself  to  the  commission  which  attracted  him  greatly. 

For  over  a  year  he  made  sketches,  and  finally  the 
theme  was  decided  upon :  a  bevy  of  youths  and  maidens 
in  gala  costume,  on  their  way  through  gardens  and  along 
terraces  to  a  great  fete,  with  pierrots  and  dancers  and 
musicians  on  the  main  wall  space.  It  was  to  be  a  picture 
of  happy  youth  and  sunny  gladness.  Five  years  after 
the  conception  of  the  idea  the  final  panel  was  finished 
and  installed  in  the  dining-room,  where  the  series  has 
since  been  admired  by  the  thirty  to  fifty  thousand  visitors 
who  come  to  the  Curtis  Building  each  year  from  for- 
eign lands  and  from  every  State  in  America.  No  other 
scheme  of  mural  decoration  was  ever  planned  on  so  large 
a  scale  for  a  commercial  building,  or  so  successfully 
carried  out. 

The  great  wall  space  of  over  one  thousand  square  feet, 
unobstructed  by  a  single  column,  in  the  main  foyer  of 
the  building  was  decided  upon  as  the  place  for  the 
pivotal  note  to  be  struck  by  some  mural  artist.  After 
looking  carefully  over  the  field,  Bok  finally  decided  upon 
Edwin  A.  Abbey.  He  took  a  steamer  and  visited  Abbey 
in  his  English  home.  The  artist  was  working  on  his 
canvases  for  the  State  capitol  at  Harrisburg,  and  it  was 
agreed  that  the  commission  for  the  Curtis  Building  was 
to  follow  the  completion  of  the  State  work. 

''What  subject  have  you  in  mind?"  asked  Abbey. 

''None,"  rephed  Bok.    "That  is  left  entirely  to  you." 

The  artist  and  his  wife  looked  at  each  other  in  be- 
wilderment. 


26o  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

"Rather  unusual,"  commented  Abbey.  "You  have 
nothing  in  mind  at  all?" 

"Nothing,  except  to  get  the  best  piece  of  work  you 
have  ever  done,"  was  the  assurance. 

Poor  Abbey !  His  life  had  been  made  so  tortuous  by 
suggestions,  ideas,  yes,  demands  made  upon  him  in  the 
work  of  the  Harrisburg  panels  upon  which  he  was  en- 
gaged, that  a  commission  in  which  he  was  to  have  free 
scope,  his  brush  full  leeway,  with  no  one  making  sug- 
gestions but  himself  and  Mrs.  Abbey,  seemed  like  a 
dream.  When  he  explained  this,  Bok  assured  him  that 
was  exactly  what  he  was  offering  him:  a  piece  of  work, 
the  subject  to  be  his  own  selection,  with  the  assurance 
of  absolute  liberty  to  carry  out  his  own  ideas.  Never 
was  an  artist  more  elated. 

"Then,  I'll  give  you  the  best  piece  of  work  of  my  life," 
said  Abbey. 

"Perhaps  there  is  some  subject  which  you  have  long 
wished  to  paint  rather  than  any  other,"  asked  Bok, 
"that  might  fit  our  purpose  admirably?" 

There  was:  a  theme  that  he  had  started  as  a  fresco 
for  Mrs.  Abbey's  bedroom.  But  it  would  not  answer 
this  purpose  at  all,  although  he  confessed  he  would 
rather  paint  it  than  any  subject  in  the  realm  of  all  Hter- 
ature  and  art. 

"And  the  subject?"  asked  Bok. 

"The  Grove  of  Academe,"  replied  Abbey,  and  the 
eyes  of  the  artist  and  his  wife  were  riveted  on  the  editor. 

"With  Plato  and  his  disciples?"  asked  Bok. 

"The  same,"  said  Abbey.  "But  you  see  it  wouldn't 
fit." 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  CIVIC  AND  PRIVATE  ART    261 

"Wouldn't  fit?"  echoed  Bok.  "Why,  it's  the  very 
thing." 

Abbey  and  his  wife  were  now  like  two  happy  children. 
Mrs.  Abbey  fetched  the  sketches  which  her  husband 
had  begun  years  ago,  and  when  Bok  saw  them  he  was 
delighted.  He  realized  at  once  that  conditions  and 
choice  would  conspire  to  produce  Abbey's  greatest  piece 
of  mural  work. 

The  arrangements  were  quickly  settled;  the  Curtis 
architect  had  accompanied  Bok  to  explain  the  archi- 
tectural possibilities  to  Abbey,  and  when  the  artist 
bade  good-by  to  the  two  at  the  railroad  station,  his 
last  words  were: 

"Bok,  you  are  going  to  get  the  best  Abbey  in  the 
world." 

And  Mrs.  Abbey  echoed  the  prophecy ! 

But  Fate  intervened.  On  the  day  after  Abbey  had 
stretched  his  great  canvas  in  Sargent's  studio  in  London, 
expecting  to  begin  his  work  the  following  week,  he  sud- 
denly passed  away,  and  what  would,  in  all  likelihood, 
have  been  Edwin  Abbey's  mural  masterpiece  w^as  lost 
to  the  world. 

Assured  of  Mrs.  Abbey's  willingness  to  have  another 
artist  take  the  theme  of  the  Grove  of  Academe  and 
carry  it  out  as  a  mural  decoration,  Bok  turned  to  Howard 
Pyle.  He  knew  Pyle  had  made  a  study  of  Plato,  and 
believed  that,  with  his  knowledge  and  love  of  the  work 
of  the  Athenian  philosopher,  a  good  decoration  would 
result.  Pyle  was  then  in  Italy;  Bok  telephoned  the 
painter's  home  in  Wilmington,  Delaware,  to  get  his  ad- 
dress, only  to  be  told  that  an  hour  earlier  word  had 


262   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

been  received  by  the  family  that  Pyle  had  been  fatally 
stricken  the  day  before. 

Once  more  Bok  went  over  the  field  of  mural  art  and 
decided  this  time  that  he  would  go  far  afield,  and  pre- 
sent his  idea  to  Boutet  de  Monvel,  the  French  decorative 
artist.  Bok  had  been  much  impressed  with  some  dec- 
orative work  by  De  Monvel  which  had  just  been  ex- 
hibited in  New  York.  By  letter  he  laid  the  proposition 
in  detail  before  the  artist,  asked  for  a  subject,  and  stipu- 
lated that  if  the  details  could  be  arranged  the  artist 
should  visit  the  building  and  see  the  place  and  sur- 
roundings for  himself.  After  a  lengthy  correspondence, 
and  sketches  submitted  and  corrected,  a  plan  for  what 
promised  to  be  a  most  unusual  and  artistically  decora- 
tive panel  was  arrived  at. 

The  date  for  M.  de  Monvel's  visit  to  Philadelphia  was 
fixed,  a  final  letter  from  the  artist  reached  Bok  on  a 
Monday  morning,  in  which  a  few  remaining  details  were 
satisfactorily  cleared  up,  and  a  cable  was  sent  assuring 
De  Monvel  of  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  company 
with  his  final  sketches  and  arrangements.  The  follow- 
ing morning  Bok  picked  up  his  newspaper  to  read  that 
Boutet  de  Monvel  had  suddenly  passed  away  in  Paris 
the  previous  evening ! 

Bok,  thoroughly  bewildered,  began  to  feel  as  if  some 
fatal  star  hung  over  his  cherished  decoration.  Three 
times  in  succession  he  had  met  the  same  decree  of 
fate. 

He  consulted  six  of  the  leading  mural  decorators  in 
America,  asking  whether  they  would  consent,  not  in 
competition,  to  submit  each  a  finished  full-color  sketch 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  CIVIC  AND  PRIVATE  ART    263 

of  the  subject  which  he  believed  fitted  for  the  place  in 
mind;  they  could  take  the  Grove  of  Academe  or  not,  as 
they  chose;  the  subject  was  to  be  of  their  own  selection. 
Each  artist  was  to  receive  a  generous  fee  for  his  sketch, 
whether  accepted  or  rejected.  In  due  time,  the  six 
sketches  were  received;  impartial  judges  were  selected, 
no  names  were  attached  to  the  sketches,  several  con- 
ferences were  held,  and  all  the  sketches  were  rejected  ! 

Bok  was  still  exactly  where  he  started,  while  the  build- 
ing was  nearly  complete,  with  no  mural  for  the  large 
place  so  insistently  demanding  it. 

He  now  recalled  a  marvellous  stage-curtain  entirely 
of  glass  mosaic  executed  by  Louis  C.  Tiffany,  of  New 
York,  for  the  Municipal  Theatre  at  Mexico  City.  The 
work  had  attracted  universal  attention  at  its  exhibition, 
art  critics  and  connoisseurs  had  praised  it  unstintingly, 
and  Bok  decided  to  experiment  in  that  direction. 

Just  as  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  Persians  had  used 
glazed  brick  and  tile,  set  in  cement,  as  their  form  of 
wall  decoration,  so  Mr.  Tififany  had  used  favrile  glass, 
set  in  cement.  The  luminosity  was  marvellous;  the 
effect  of  hght  upon  the  glass  was  unbelievably  beauti- 
ful, and  the  colorings  obtained  were  a  joy  to  the  senses. 

Here  was  not  only  a  new  method  in  wall  decoration, 
but  one  that  was  entirely  practicable.  Glass  would 
not  craze  Hke  tiles  or  mosaic;  it  would  not  crinkle  as 
will  canvas;  it  needed  no  varnish.  It  would  retain  its 
color,  freshness,  and  beauty,  and  water  would  readily 
cleanse  it  from  dust. 

He  sought  Mr.  Tiffany,  who  was  enthusiastic  over  the 
idea  of  making  an  example  of  his  mosaic  glass  of  such 


264  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

dimensions  which  should  remain  in  this  country,  and 
gladly  offered  to  co-operate.  But,  try  as  he  might, 
Bok  could  not  secure  an  adequate  sketch  for  Mr.  Tif- 
fany to  carry  out.  Then  he  recalled  that  one  day  while 
at  Maxfield  Parrish's  summer  home  in  New  Hampshire 
the  artist  had  told  him  of  a  dream  garden  which  he  would 
like  to  construct,  not  on  canvas  but  in  reality.  Bok 
suggested  to  Parrish  that  he  come  to  New  York.  He 
asked  him  if  he  could  put  his  dream  garden  on  canvas. 
The  artist  thought  he  could;  in  fact,  was  greatly  at- 
tracted to  the  idea;  but  he  knew  nothing  of  mosaic  work, 
and  was  not  particularly  attracted  by  the  idea  of  having 
his  work  rendered  in  that  medium. 

Bok  took  Parrish  to  Mr.  Tiffany's  studio;  the  two 
artists  talked  together,  the  glass-worker  showed  the 
canvas-painter  his  work,  with  the  result  that  the  two 
became  enthusiastic  to  co-operate  in  trying  the  experi- 
ment. Parrish  agreed  to  make  a  sketch  for  Mr.  Tif- 
fany's approval,  and  within  six  months,  after  a  number 
of  conferences  and  an  equal  number  of  sketches,  they 
were  ready  to  begin  the  work.  Bok  only  hoped  that 
this  time  both  artists  would  outlive  their  commissions ! 

It  was  a  huge  picture  to  be  done  in  glass  mosaic.  The 
space  to  be  filled  called  for  over  a  million  pieces  of  glass, 
and  for  a  year  the  services  of  thirty  of  the  most  skilled 
artisans  would  be  required.  The  work  had  to  be  done 
from  a  series  of  bromide  photographs  enlarged  to  a  size 
hitherto  unattempted.  But  at  last  the  decoration  was 
completed;  the  finished  art  piece  was  placed  on  exhibi- 
tion in  New  York  and  over  seven  thousand  persons  came 
to  see  it.     The  leading  art  critics  pronounced  the  result 


AN  ADVENTXJRE  IN  CIVIC  AND  PRIVATE  ART    265 

to  be  the  most  amazing  instance  of  the  tone  capacity  of 
glass-work  ever  achieved.  It  was  a  veritable  wonder- 
piece,  far  exceeding  the  utmost  expression  of  paint  and 
canvas. 

For  six  months  a  group  of  skilled  artisans  worked  to 
take  the  picture  apart  in  New  York,  transport  it  and  set 
it  into  its  place  in  Philadelphia.  But  at  last  it  was  in 
place:  the  wonder-picture  in  glass  of  which  painters 
have  declared  that  ''mere  words  are  only  aggravating 
in  describing  this  amazing  picture."  Since  that  day 
over  one  hundred  thousand  visitors  to  the  building  have 
sat  in  admiration  before  it. 

The  Grove  of  Academe  was  to  become  a  Dream  Gar- 
den, but  it  was  only  after  six  years  of  incessant  effort, 
with  obstacles  and  interventions  almost  insurmountable, 
that  the  dream  became  true. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  INFLUENCE 

When  the  virile  figure  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  swung 
down  the  national  highway,  Bok  was  one  of  thousands 
of  young  men  who  felt  strongly  the  attraction  of  his 
personality.  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  only  five  years  the 
senior  of  the  editor;  he  spoke,  therefore,  as  one  of  his 
own  years.  The  energy  with  which  he  said  and  did 
things  appealed  to  Bok.  He  made  Americanism  some- 
thing more  real,  more  stirring  than  Bok  had  ever  felt 
it;  he  explained  national  questions  in  a  way  that  caught 
Bok's  fancy  and  came  within  his  comprehension.  Bok's 
lines  had  been  cast  with  many  of  the  great  men  of  the 
day,  but  he  felt  that  there  was  something  distinctive 
about  the  personality  of  this  man:  his  method  of  doing 
things  and  his  way  of  saying  things.  Bok  observed 
everything  Colonel  Roosevelt  did  and  read  everything 
he  wrote. 

The  editor  now  sought  an  opportunity  to  know  per- 
sonally the  man  whom  he  admired.  It  came  at  a  dinner 
at  the  University  Club,  and  Colonel  Roosevelt  suggested 
that  they  meet  there  the  following  day  for  a  ''talk- 
fest."  For  three  hours  the  two  talked  together.  The 
fact  that  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  of  Dutch  ancestry  in- 
terested Bok;  that  Bok  was  actually  of  Dutch  birth 
made  a  strong  appeal  to  the  colonel.  With  his  tremen- 
dous breadth  of  interests,  Roosevelt,  Bok  found,  had  fol- 

266 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT'S  INFLUENCE         267 

lowed  him  quite  closely  in  his  work,  and  was  famihar 
with  "its  high  points,"  as  he  called  them.  "We  must 
work  for  the  same  ends,"  said  the  colonel,  "you  in  your 
way,  I  in  mine.  But  our  lines  are  bound  to  cross.  You 
and  I  can  each  become  good  Americans  by  giving  our 
best  to  make  America  better.  With  the  Dutch  stock 
there  is  in  both  of  us,  there's  no  limit  to  what  we  can  do. 
Let's  go  to  it."  ^Naturally  that  talk  left  the  two  firm 
friends. 

Bok  felt  somehow  that  he  had  been  given  a  new 
draft  of  Americanism:  the  word  took  on  a  new  mean- 
ing for  him;  it  stood  for  something  different,  something 
deeper  and  finer  than  before.  And  every  subsequent 
talk  with  Roosevelt  deepened  the  feeling  and  stirred 
Bok's  deepest  ambitions.  "Go  to  it,  you  Dutchman," 
Roosevelt  would  say,  and  Bok  would  go  to  it.  A  talk 
with  Roosevelt  always  left  him  feeling  as  if  mountains 
were  the  easiest  things  in  the  world  to  move. 

One  of  Theodore  Roosevelt's  arguments  which  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  Bok  was  that  no  man  had  a 
right  to  devote  his  entire  life  to  the  making  of  money. 
"You  are  in  a  peculiar  position,"  said  the  man  of 
Oyster  Bay  one  day  to  Bok;  "you  are  in  that  happy 
position  where  you  can  make  money  and  do  good  at  the 
same  time.  A  man  wields  a  tremendous  power  for  good  or 
for  evil  who  is  welcomed  into  a  million  homes  and  read 
with  confidence.  That's  fine,  and  is  all  right  so  far  as  it 
goes,  and  in  your  case  it  goes  very  far.  Still,  there  re- 
mains more  for  you  to  do.  The  public  has  built  up  for 
you  a  personality :  now  give  that  personality  to  whatever 
interests  you  in  contact  with  your  immediate  fellow- 


268   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

men:  something  in  your  neighborhood,  your  city,  or 
your  State.  With  one  hand  work  and  write  to  your 
national  audience:  let  no  fads  sway  you.  Hew  close  to 
the  line.  But,  with  the  other  hand,  swing  into  the  life 
immediately  around  you.    Think  it  over." 

Bok  did  think  it  over.  He  was  now  realizing  the 
dream  of  his  life  for  which  he  had  worked:  his  means 
were  sufficient  to  give  his  mother  every  comfort;  to  in- 
stall her  in  the  most  comfortable  surroundings  wher- 
ever she  chose  to  'live;  to  make  it  possible  for  her  to 
spend  the  winters  in  the  United  States  and  the  summers 
in  the  Netherlands,  and  thus  to  keep  in  touch  with  her 
family  and  friends  in  both  countries.  He  had  for  years 
toiled  unceasingly  to  reach  this  point :  he  felt  he  had  now 
achieved  at  least  one  goal. 

He  had  now  turned  instinctively  to  the  making  of  a 
home  for  himself.  After  an  engagement  of  four  years 
he  had  been  married,  on  October  22,  1896,  to  Mary 
Louise  Curtis,  the  only  child  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cyrus 
H.  K.  Curtis;  two  sons  had  been  born  to  them;  he 
had  built  and  was  occupying  a  house  at  Merion,  Penn- 
sylvania, a  suburb  six  miles  from  the  Philadelphia  City 
Hall.  When  she  was  in  this  country  his  mother  lived 
with  him,  and  also  his  brother,  and,  with  a  strong  belief 
in  life  insurance,  he  had  seen  to  it  that  his  family  was 
provided  for  in  case  of  personal  incapacity  or  of  his 
demise.  In  other  words,  he  felt  that  he  had  put  his  own 
house  in  order;  he  had  carried  out  what  he  felt  is  every 
man's  duty:  to  be,  first  of  all,  a  careful  and  adequate 
provider  for  his  family.  He  was  now  at  the  point  where 
he  could  begin  to  work  for  another  goal,  the  goal  that 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  INFLUENCE         269 

he  felt  so  few  American  men  saw:  the  point  in  his  life 
where  he  could  retire  from  the  call  of  duty  and  follow 
the  call  of  inclination. 

At  the  age  of  forty  he  tried  to  look  ahead  and  plan 
out  his  life  as  far  as  he  could.  Barring  unforeseen  ob- 
stacles, he  determined  to  retire  from  active  business 
when  he  reached  his  fiftieth  year,  and  give  the  remainder 
of  his  life  over  to  those  interests  and  influences  which 
he  assumed  now  as  part  of  his  life,  and  which,  at  fifty, 
should  seem  to  him  best  worth  while.  He  realized  that 
in  order  to  do  this  he  must  do  two  things:  he  must  hus- 
band his  financial  resources  and  he  must  begin  to  ac- 
cumulate a  mental  reserve. 

The  wide  public  acceptance  of  the  periodical  which 
he  edited  naturally  brought  a  share  of  financial  success 
to  him.  He  had  experienced  poverty,  and  as  he  sub- 
sequently wrote,  in  an  article  called  ''Why  I  Believe  in 
Poverty,"  he  was  deeply  grateful  for  his  experience. 
He  had  known  what  it  was  to  be  poor;  he  had  seen  others 
dear  to  him  suffer  for  the  bare  necessities;  there  was,  in 
fact,  not  a  single  step  on  that  hard  road  that  he  had 
not  travelled.  He  could,  therefore,  sympathize  with 
the  fullest  understanding  with  those  similarly  situated, 
could  help  as  one  who  knew  from  practice  and  not  from 
theory.  He  realized  what  a  marvellous  blessing  poverty 
can  be;  but  as  a  condition  to  experience,  to  derive  from 
it  poignant  lessons,  and  then  to  get  out  of;  not  as  a 
condition  to  stay  in. 

Of  course  many  said  to  Bok  when  he  wrote  the  ar- 
ticle in  which  he  expressed  these  beliefs:  "That's  all 
very  well;  easy  enough  to  say,  but  how  can  you  get  out 


27©  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

of  it?"  Bok  realized  that  he  could  not  definitely  show 
any  one  the  way.  No  one  had  shown  him.  No  two 
persons  can  find  the  same  way  out.  Bok  determined  to 
lift  himself  out  of  poverty  because  his  mother  was  not 
bom  in  it,  did  not  belong  in  it,  and  could  not  stand  it. 
That  gave  him  the  first  essential:  a  purpose.  Then  he 
backed  up  the  purpose  with  effort  and  an  ever-ready 
wiUingness  to  work,  and  to  work  at  anything  that  came 
his  way,  no  matter  what  it  was,  so  long  as  it  meant  "  the 
way  out."  He  did  not  pick  and  choose;  he  took  what 
came,  and  did  it  in  the  best  way  he  knew  how;  and  when 
he  did  not  Hke  what  he  was  doing  he  still  did  it  as  well 
as  he  could  while  he  was  doing  it,  but  always  with  an 
eye  single  to  the  purpose  not  to  do  it  any  longer  than  was 
strictly  necessary.  He  used  every  rung  in  the  ladder  as 
a  rung  to  the  one  above.  He  always  gave  more  than  his 
particular  position  or  salary  asked  for.  He  never  worked 
by  the  clock;  always  by  the  job;  and  saw  that  it  was 
well  done  regardless  of  the  time  it  took  to  do  it.  This 
meant  effort,  of  course,  untiring,  ceaseless,  unsparing; 
and  it  meant  work,  hard  as  nails. 

He  was  particularly  careful  never  to  live  up  to  his 
income;  and  as  his  income  increased  he  increased  not 
the  percentage  of  expenditure  but  the  percentage  of 
saving.  Thrift  was,  of  course,  inborn  with  him  as  a 
Dutchman,  but  the  necessity  for  it  as  a  prime  factor  in 
Ufe  was  burned  into  him  by  his  experience  with  poverty. 
But  he  interpreted  thrift  not  as  a  trait  of  niggardliness, 
but  as  Theodore  Roosevelt  interpreted  it :  common  sense 
applied  to  spending. 

At  forty,  therefore,  he  felt  he  had  learned  the  first 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  INFLUENCE         271 

essential  to  carrying  out  his  idea  of  retirement  at  fifty. 

The  second  essential — varied  interests  outside  of  his 
business  upon  which  he  could  rely  on  relinquishing  his 
duties — he  had  not  cultivated.  He  had  quite  naturally, 
in  line  with  his  belief  that  concentration  means  success, 
inmiersed  himself  in  his  business  to  the  exclusion  of  al- 
most everything  else.  He  felt  that  he  could  now  spare 
a  certain  percentage  of  his  time  to  follow  Theodore 
Roosevelt's  ideas  and  let  the  breezes  of  other  worlds 
blow  over  him.  In  that  way  he  could  do  as  Roosevelt 
suggested  and  as  Bok  now  firmly  believed  was  right: 
he  could  develop  himself  along  broader  hnes,  albeit  the 
lines  of  his  daily  work  were  broadening  in  and  of  them- 
selves, and  he  could  so  develop  a  new  set  of  inner  re- 
sources upon  which  he  could  draw  when  the  time  came 
to  relinquish  his  editorial  position. 

He  saw,  on  every  side,  the  pathetic  figures  of  men  who 
could  not  let  go  after  their  greatest  usefulness  was  past; 
of  other  men  who  dropped  before  they  realized  their 
arrival  at  the  end  of  the  road;  and,  most  pathetic  of  all, 
of  men  who  having  retired,  but  because  of  lack  of  inner 
resources  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  themselves, 
had  become  a  trial  to  themselves,  their  families,  and 
their  communities. 

Bok  decided  that,  given  health  and  mental  freshness, 
he  would  say  good-by  to  his  public  before  his  public 
might  decide  to  say  good-by  to  him.  So,  at  forty,  he 
candidly  faced  the  facts  of  life  and  began  to  prepare 
himself  for  his  retirement  at  fifty  under  circumstances 
that  would  be  of  his  own  making  and  not  those  of  others. 

And  thereby  Edward  Bok  proved  that  he  was  still, 


272   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

by  instinct,  a  Dutchman,  and  had  not  in  his  thirty-four 
years  of  residence  in  the  United  States  become  so  thor- 
oughly Americanized  as  he  believed. 

However,  it  was  an  American,  albeit  of  Dutch  ex- 
traction, one  whom  he  believed  to  be  the  greatest  Amer- 
ican in  his  own  day,  who  had  set  him  thinking  and  shown 
him  the  way. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  ANONYMOUS  EDITORIAL 

WORK 

While  Thecxiore  Roosevelt  was  President  of  the 
United  States,  Bok  was  sitting  one  evening  talking  with 
him,  when  suddenly  Mr.  Roosevelt  turned  to  him  and 
said  with  his  usual  emphasis:  "Bok,  I  envy  you  your 
power  with  your  public." 

The  editor  was  frankly  puzzled. 

"That  is  a  strange  remark  from  the  President  of  the 
United  States,"  he  replied. 

"You  may  think  so,"  was  the  rejoinder.  "But  lis- 
ten. When  do  I  get  the  ear  of  the  public  ?  In  its  busiest 
moments.  My  messages  are  printed  in  the  newspapers 
and  read  hurriedly,  mostly  by  men  in  trolleys  or  rail- 
road-cars. Women  hardly  ever  read  them,  I  should 
judge.  Now  you  are  read  in  the  evening  by  the  fireside 
or  under  the  lamp,  when  the  day's  work  is  over  and  the 
mind  is  at  rest  from  other  things  and  receptive  to  what 
you  offer.     Don't  you  see  where  you  have  it  on  me?" 

This  diagnosis  was  keenly  interesting,  and  while  the 
President  talked  during  the  balance  of  the  evening,  Bok 
was  thinking.  Finally,  he  said:  "Mr.  President,  I 
should  like  to  share  my  power  with  you." 

"How?"  asked  Mr.  Roosevelt. 

"You  recognize  that  women  do  not  read  your  mes- 
sages;   and  yet  no  President's  messages  ever  discussed 


274   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

more  ethical  questions  that  women  should  know  about 
and  get  straight  in  their  minds.  As  it  is,  some  of  your 
ideas  are  not  at  all  understood  by  them;  your  strenuous- 
life  theory,  for  instance,  your  factory-law  ideas,  and  par- 
ticularly your  race-suicide  arguments.  Men  don't  fully 
understand  them,  for  that  matter;  women  certainly  do 
not." 

**I  am  aware  of  all  that,"  said  the  President.  ''What 
is  your  plan  to  remedy  it?" 

"Have  a  department  in  my  magazine,  and  explain 
your  ideas,"  suggested  Bok. 

"Haven't  time  for  another  thing.  You  know  that," 
snapped  back  the  President.     "Wish  I  had." 

"Not  to  write  it,  perhaps,  yourself,"  returned  Bok. 
"But  why  couldn't  you  find  time  to  do  this:  select  the 
writer  here  in  Washington  in  whose  accuracy  you  have 
the  most  implicit  faith;  let  him  talk  with  you  for  one 
hour  each  month  on  one  of  those  subjects;  let  him  write 
out  your  views,  and  submit  the  manuscript  to  you;  and 
we  will  have  a  department  stating  exactly  how  the  ma- 
terial is  obtained  and  how  far  it  represents  your  own 
work.  In  that  way,  with  only  an  hour's  work  each 
month,  you  can  get  your  views,  correctly  stated,  before 
this  vast  audience  when  it  is  not  in  trolleys  or  railroad- 
cars." 

"But  I  haven't  the  hour,"  answered  Roosevelt,  im- 
pressed, however,  as  Bok  saw.  "I  have  only  half  an 
hour,  when  I  am  awake,  when  I  am  really  idle,  and  that 
is  when  I  am  being  shaved." 

"Well,"  calmly  suggested  the  editor,  "why  not  two 
of  those  half -hours  a  month,  or  perhaps  one  ?  " 


ROOSEVELT'S  ANONYMOUS  EDITORIAL  WORK    275 

"What?"  answered  the  President,  sitting  upright,  his 
teeth  flashing  but  his  smile  broadening.  "You  Dutch- 
man, you'd  make  me  work  while  I'm  getting  shaved, 
too?" 

"Well,"  was  the  answer,  "isn't  the  result  worth  the 
effort?" 

"Bok,  you  are  absolutely  relentless,"  said  the  Presi- 
dent. "But  you're  right.  The  result  would  be  worth 
the  effort.  What  writer  have  you  in  mind  ?  You  seem 
to  have  thought  this  thing  through." 

"How  about  O'Brien ?     You  think  well  of  him ? " 

(Robert  L.  O'Brien,  now  editor  of  the  Boston  Herald, 
was  then  Washington  correspondent  for  the  Boston 
Transcript  and  thoroughly  in  the  President's  confidence.) 

"Fine,"  said  the  President.  "I  trust  O'Brien  im- 
plicitly. All  right,  if  you  can  get  O'Brien  to  add  it  on, 
I'U  try  it." 

And  so  the  "shaving  interviews"  were  begun;  and 
early  in  1906  there  appeared  in  The  Ladies^  Home  Jour- 
nal a  department  called  "The  President,"  with  the  sub- 
title: "A  Department  in  which  will  be  presented  the 
attitude  of  the  President  on  those  national  questions 
which  affect  the  vital  interests  of  the  home,  by  a  writer 
intimately  acquainted  and  in  dose  touch  with  him," 

O'Brien  talked  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  once  a  month, 
wrote  out  the  results,  the  President  went  over  the  proofs 
carefully,  and  the  department  was  conducted  with  great 
success  for  a  year. 

But  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  again  to  be  the  editor 
of  a  department  in  The  Ladies''  Home  Journal;  this  time 
to  be  written  by  himself  under  the  strictest  possible 


276   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

anonymity,  so  closely  adhered  to  that,  until  this  revela- 
tion, only  five  persons  have  known  the  authorship. 

Feeling  that  it  would  be  an  interesting  experiment  to 
see  how  far  Theodore  Roosevelt's  ideas  could  stand  un- 
supported by  the  authority  of  his  vibrant  personality, 
Bok  suggested  the  plan  to  the  colonel.  It  was  just 
after  he  had  returned  from  his  South  American  trip. 
He  was  immediately  interested. 

"But  how  can  we  keep  the  authorship  really  anony- 
mous?" he  asked. 

"Easily  enough,"  answered  Bok,  "if  you're  willing  to 
do  the  work.  Our  letters  about  it  must  be  written  in 
long  hand  addressed  to  each  other's  homes;  you  must 
write  your  manuscript  in  your  own  hand;  I  will  copy  it 
in  mine,  and  it  will  go  to  the  printer  in  that  way.  I  will 
personally  send  you  the  proofs;  you  mark  your  correc- 
tions in  pencil,  and  I  will  copy  them  in  ink;  the  com- 
pany will  pay  me  for  each  article,  and  I  will  send  you 
my  personal  check  each  month.  By  this  means,  the 
identity  of  the  author  will  be  concealed." 

Colonel  Roosevelt  was  never  averse  to  hard  work  if 
it  was  necessary  to  achieve  a  result  that  he  felt  was 
worth  while. 

"All  right,"  wrote  the  colonel  finally.  "I'll  try— 
with  you! — the  experiment  for  a  year:  12  articles.  .  .  . 
I  don't  know  that  I  can  give  your  readers  satisfaction, 
but  I  shall  try  my  very  best.  I  am  very  glad  to  be  as- 
sociated with  you,  anyway.  At  first  I  doubted  the  wis- 
dom of  the  plan,  merely  because  I  doubted  whether  I 
could  give  you  just  that  you  wished.  I  never  know 
what  an  audience  wants:  I  know  what  it  ought  to  want: 


ROOSEVELT'S  ANONYMOUS  EDITORIAL  WORK    277 

and  sometimes  I  can  give  it,  or  make  it  accept  what 
I  think  it  needs — and  sometimes  I  cannot.  But  the 
more  I  thought  over  your  proposal,  the  more  I  liked  it. 
.  .  .  Whether  the  wine  will  be  good  enough  to  at- 
tract without  any  bush  I  don't  know;  and  besides,  in 
such  cases  the  fault  is  not  in  the  wine,  but  in  the  fact 
that  the  consumers  decUne  to  have  their  attention  at- 
tracted unless  there  is  a  bush  ! " 

In  the  latter  part  of  19 16  an  anonymous  department 
called  "Men"  was  begun  in  the  magazine. 

The  physical  work  was  great.  The  colonel  punctili- 
ously held  to  the  conditions,  and  wrote  manuscript  and 
letters  with  his  own  hand,  and  Bok  carried  out  his  part 
of  the  agreement.  Nor  was  this  simple,  for  Colonel 
Roosevelt's  manuscript — ^particularly  when,  as  in  this 
case,  it  was  written  on  yellow  paper  with  a  soft  pencil 
and  generously  interlined — was  anything  but  legible. 
Month  after  month  the  two  men  worked  each  at  his  own 
task.  To  throw  the  public  off  the  scent,  during  the 
conduct  of  the  department,  an  article  or  two  by  Colonel 
Roosevelt  was  published  in  another  part  of  the  magazine 
under  his  own  name,  and  in  the  department  itself  the 
anonymous  author  would  occasionally  quote  himself. 

It  was  natural  that  the  appearance  of  a  department 
devoted  to  men  in  a  woman's  magazine  should  attract 
immediate  attention.  The  department  took  up  the 
various  interests  of  a  man's  life,  such  as  real  efficiency; 
his  duties  as  an  employer  and  his  usefulness  to  his  em- 
ployees; the  employee's  attitude  toward  his  employer; 
the  relations  of  men  and  women;  a  father's  relations  to 
his  sons  and  daughters;  a  man's  duty  to  his  community; 


278  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  public-school  system;  a  man's  relation  to  his  church, 
and  kindred  topics. 

The  anonymity  of  the  articles  soon  took  on  interest 
from  the  positiveness  of  the  opinions  discussed;  but  so 
thoroughly  had  Colonel  Roosevelt  covered  his  tracks 
that,  although  he  wrote  in  his  usual  style,  in  not  a  single 
instance  was  his  name  connected  with  the  department. 
Lyman  Abbott  was  the  favorite  "guess"  at  first;  then 
after  various  other  public  men  had  been  suggested,  the 
newspapers  finally  decided  upon  former  President  Eliot 
of  Harvard  University  as  the  writer. 

All  this  intensely  interested  and  amused  Colonel 
Roosevelt  and  he  fairly  itched  with  the  desire  to  write 
a  series  of  criticisms  of  his  own  articles  to  Doctor  EHot. 
Bok,  however,  persuaded  the  colonel  not  to  spend  more 
physical  effort  than  he  was  already  doing  on  the  arti- 
cles; for,  in  addition,  he  was  notating  answers  on  the 
numerous  letters  received,  and  those  Bok  answered 
*'on  behalf  of  the  author." 

For  a  year,  the  department  continued.  During  all 
that  time  the  secret  of  the  authorship  was  known 
to  only  one  man,  besides  the  colonel  and  Bok,  and  their 
respective  wives ! 

When  the  colonel  sent  his  last  article  in  the  series  to 
Bok,  he  wrote: 

Now  that  the  work  is  over,  I  wish  most  cordially  to  thank 
you,  my  dear  fellow,  for  your  unvarying  courtesy  and  kind- 
ness. I  have  not  been  satisfied  with  my  work.  This  is  the 
first  time  I  ever  tried  to  write  precisely  to  order,  and  I  am 
not  one  of  those  gifted  men  who  can  do  so  to  advantage. 
Generally  I  find  that  the  3,000  words  is  not  the  right  length 


z 

o  ^ 

:5  w 

:^  a 

H-  >< 

i§ 

c  < 

pi: 

« 
o 
c 
o 
u 


ROOSEVELT'S  ANONYMOUS  EDITORIAL  WORK    279 

and  that  I  wish  to  use  2,000  or  4,000 !    And  in  consequence 
feel  as  if  I  had  either  padded  or  mutilated  the  article.     And 
I  am  not  always  able  to  feel  that  every  month  I  have  some- 
thing worth  saying  on  a  given  subject. 
But  I  hope  that  you  have  not  been  too  much  disappointed. 

Bok  had  not  been,  and  neither  had  his  public ! 

In  the  meanwhile,  Bok  had  arranged  with  Colonel 
Roosevelt  for  his  reading  and  advising  upon  manu- 
scripts of  special  significance  for  the  magazine.  In 
this  work,  Colonel  Roosevelt  showed  his  customary 
promptness  and  thoroughness.  A  manuscript,  no  mat- 
ter how  long  it  might  be,  was  in  his  hands  scarcely  forty- 
eight  hours,  more  generally  twenty-four,  before  it  was 
read,  a  report  thereon  written,  and  the  article  on  its 
way  back.  His  reports  were  always  comprehensive  and 
invariably  interesting.  There  was  none  of  the  cut- 
and-dried  flavor  of  the  opinion  of  the  average  "reader"; 
he  always  put  himself  into  the  report,  and,  of  course, 
that  meant  a  warm  personal  touch.  If  he  could  not 
encourage  the  publication  of  a  manuscript,  his  reasons 
were  always  fully  given,  and  invariably  without  per- 
sonal bias. 

On  one  occasion  Bok  sent  him  a  manuscript  which  he 
was  sure  was,  in  its  views,  at  variance  with  the  colonel's 
beliefs.  The  colonel,  he  knew,  felt  strongly  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  Bok  wondered  what  woidd  be  his  criticism. 
The  report  came  back  promptly.  He  reviewed  the 
article  carefully  and  ended:  "Of  course,  this  is  all  at 
variance  with  my  own  views.  I  believe  thoroughly 
and  completely  that  this  writer  is  all  wrong.  And  yet, 
from  his  side  of  the  case,  I  am  free  to  say  that  he  makes 


28o   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

SAOAMORC  MltL.        CL^iy*^-^    /  '  t f/ ^ 


A^ 


^(Sr     ^^^^      m.^'^^  ^ 


/^^W**^    ^^**^r      /^"^^^     *«^      CU.^fi 


ONE   OF  THEODORE   R00SE\'ELT'S   "  REPORTS  "   AS   A    READER    OF 
SPECIAL  MANUSCRIPTS 

out  the  best  case  I  have  read  anywhere.  I  think  a 
magazine  should  present  both  sides  of  all  questions; 
and  if  you  want  to  present  this  side,  I  should  strongly 
recommend  that  you  do  so  with  this  article." 

Not  long  after,  Bok  decided  to  induce  Colonel  Roose- 
velt to  embark  upon  an  entirely  new  activity,  and  ne- 
gotiations were  begun  (alas,  too  late !  for  it  was  in  the  au- 


ROOSEVELT'S  ANONYMOUS   EDITORIAL  WORK     281 

tumn  of  1918),  which,  owing  to  their  tentative  character, 
were  never  made  public.  Bok  told  Colonel  Roosevelt 
that  he  wanted  to  invest  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
a  year  in  American  boyhood — the  boyhood  that  he 
felt  twenty  years  hence  would  be  the  manhood  of 
America,  and  that  would  actually  solve  the  problems 
with  which  we  were  now  grappling. 

Although,  aU  too  apparently,  he  was  not  in  his  usual 
vigorous  health.  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  alert  in  a  mo- 
ment. 

"Fine!"  he  said,  with  his  teeth  gleaming.  "Couldn't 
invest  better  anywhere.     How  are  you  going  to  do  it?" 

"By  asking  you  to  assume  the  active  headship  of  the 
National  Boy  Scouts  of  America,  and  paying  you  that 
amount  each  year  as  a  fixed  salary." 

The  colonel  looked  steadily  ahead  for  a  moment, 
without  a  word,  and  then  with  the  old  Roosevelt  smile 
wreathing  his  face  and  his  teeth  fairly  gleaming,  he 
turned  to  his  "tempter,"  as  he  called  him,  and  said: 

"Do  you  know  that  was  very  well  put?  Yes,  sirj 
very  well  put." 

"Yes?"  answered  Bok.  "Glad  you  think  so.  But 
how  about  your  acceptance  of  the  idea  ?  " 

"That's  another  matter;  quite  another  matter.  How 
about  the  organization  itself  ?  There  are  men  in  it  that 
don't  approve  of  me  at  all,  you  know,"  he  said. 

Bok  explained  that  the  organization  knew  nothing 
of  his  offer;  that  it  was  entirely  imofficial.  It  was 
purely  a  personal  thought.  He  believed  the  Boy 
Scouts  of  America  needed  a  leader;  that  the  colonel 
was  the  one  man  in  the  United  States  fitted  by  every 


282   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

natural  quality  to  be  that  leader;  that  the  Scouts  would 
rally  around  him,  and  that,  at  his  call,  instead  of  four 
hundred  thousand  Scouts,  as  there  were  then,  the  or- 
ganization would  grow  into  a  million  and  more.  Bok 
further  explained  that  he  believed  his  connection  with 
the  national  organization  was  sufficient,  if  Colonel  Roose- 
velt would  favorably  consider  such  a  leadership,  to  war- 
rant him  in  presenting  it  to  the  national  officers;  and 
he  was  incUned  to  believe  they  would  welcome  the  op- 
portunity. He  could  not  assure  the  colonel  of  this! 
He  had  no  authority  for  saying  they  would;  but  was 
Colonel  Roosevelt  receptive  to  the  idea? 

At  first,  the  colonel  could  not  see  it.  But  he  went 
over  the  ground  as  thoroughly  as  a  half-hour  talk  per- 
mitted; and  finally  the  opportunity  for  doing  a  piece  of 
constructive  work  that  might  prove  second  to  none  that 
he  had  ever  done,  made  its  appeal. 

"You  mean  for  me  to  be  the  active  head?"  asked  the 
colonel. 

"Could  you  be  anything  else,  colonel?"  answered 
Bok. 

"Quite  so,"  said  the  colonel.  "That's  about  right. 
Do  you  know,"  he  pondered,  "I  think  Edie  (Mrs.  Roose- 
velt) might  like  me  to  do  something  like  that.  She 
would  figure  it  would  keep  me  out  of  mischief  in  1920," 
and  the  colonel's  smile  spread  over  his  face. 

"Bok,"  he  at  last  concluded,  "do  you  know,  after 
all,  I  think  you've  said  something !  Let's  think  it  over. 
Let's  see  how  I  get  along  with  this  trouble  of  mine.  I 
am  not  sure,  you  know,  how  far  I  can  go  in  the  future. 
Not  at  all  sure,  you  know — not  at  all.     That  last  trip 


ROOSEVELT'S  ANONYMOUS  EDITORIAL  WORK     283 

of  mine  to  South  America  was  a  bit  too  much.  Shouldn't 
have  done  it,  you  know.  I  know  it  now.  Well,  as  I 
say,  let's  both  think  it  over  and  through;  I  will,  gladly 
and  most  carefully.  There's  much  in  what  you  say; 
it's  a  great  chance;  I'd  love  doing  it.  By  Jove!  it 
would  be  wonderful  to  rally  a  million  boys  for  real 
Americanism,  as  you  say.  It  looms  up  as  I  think  it 
over.     Suppose  we  let  it  simmer  for  a  month  or  two." 

And  so  it  was  left — for  "a  month  or  two."  It  was 
to  be  forever — unfortunately.  Edward  Bok  has  al- 
ways felt  that  the  most  worth-while  idea  that  ever 
came  to  him  had,  for  some  reason  he  never  could  under- 
stand, come  too  late.  He  felt,  as  he  will  always  feel, 
that  the  boys  of  America  had  lost  a  national  leader 
that  might  have  led  them — ^where  would  have  been  the 
limit? 


CHAPTER  XXV 
THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  BOY 

One  of  the  incidents  connected  with  Edward  Bok 
that  Theodore  Roosevelt  never  forgot  was  when  Bok's 
eldest  boy  chose  the  colonel  as  a  Christmas  present. 
And  no  incident  better  portrays  the  wonderful  char- 
acter of  the  colonel  than  did  his  remarkable  response 
to  the  comphment. 

A  vicious  attack  of  double  pneumonia  had  left  the 
heart  of  the  boy  very  weak — and  Christmas  was  close 
by !     So  the  father  said : 

"It's  a  quiet  Christmas  for  you  this  year,  boy.  Sup- 
pose you  do  this:  think  of  the  one  thing  in  the  world 
that  you  would  rather  have  than  anything  else  and 
I'll  give  you  that,  and  that  will  have  to  be  your  Christ- 
mas." 

*'I  know  now,"  came  the  instant  reply. 

''But  the  world  is  a  big  place,  and  there  are  lots  of 
things  in  it,  you  know." 

"I  know  that,"  said  the  boy,  "but  this  is  something 
I  have  wanted  for  a  long  time,  and  would  rather  have 
than  anything  else  in  the  world."  And  he  looked  as 
if  he  meant  it. 

"Well,  out  with  it,  then,  if  you're  so  sure." 

And  to  the  father's  astonished  ears  came  this  request: 

"Take  me  to  Washington  as  soon  as  my  heart  is  all 

284 


THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  BOY  285 

right,  introduce  me  to  President  Roosevelt,  and  let  me 
shake  hands  with  him." 

"All  right,"  said  the  father,  after  recovering  from  his 
surprise.  "I'll  see  whether  I  can  fix  it."  And  that 
morning  a  letter  went  to  the  President  saying  that  he 
had  been  chosen  as  a  Christmas  present.  Naturally,  any 
man  would  have  felt  pleased,  no  matter  how  high  his 
station,  and  for  Theodore  Roosevelt,  father  of  boys, 
the  message  had  a  special  appeal. 

The  letter  had  no  sooner  reached  Washington  than 
back  came  an  answer,  addressed  not  to  the  father  but 
to  the  boy  !    It  read : 

The  White  House,  Washington. 
November  13th,  1907. 
Dear  Curtis: 

Your  father  has  just  written  me,  and  I  want  him  to  bring 
you  on  and  shake  hands  with  me  as  soon  as  you  are  well 
enough  to  travel.  Then  I  am  going  to  give  you,  myself,  a 
copy  of  the  book  containing  my  hunting  trips  since  I  have  been 
President;  unless  you  will  wait  until  the  new  edition,  which 
contains  two  more  chapters,  is  out.  If  so,  I  will  send  it  to  you, 
as  this  new  edition  probably  won't  be  ready  when  you  come 
on  here. 

Give  my  warm  regards  to  your  father  and  mother. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 

Here  was  joy  serene !  But  the  boy's  heart  had  acted 
queerly  for  a  few  days,  and  so  the  father  wrote,  thanked 
the  President,  and  said  that  as  soon  as  the  heart  moder- 
ated a  bit  the  letter  would  be  given  the  boy.  It  was  a 
rare  bit  of  consideration  that  now  followed.  No  sooner 
had  the  father's  letter  reached  the  White  House  than  an 


286   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

answer  came  back  by  first  post — this  time  with  a  special- 
delivery  stamp  on  it.  It  was  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
the  father,  who  wrote  this  time;  his  mind  and  time 
filled  with  affairs  of  state,  and  yet  full  of  tender  thought- 
fulness  for  a  little  boy: 

Dear  Mr.  Bok: — 

I  have  your  letter  of  the  i6th  instant.  I  hope  the  little 
fellow  will  soon  be  all  right.  Instead  of  giving  him  my  letter, 
give  him  a  message  from  me  based  on  the  letter,  if  that  will 
be  better  for  him.  Tell  Mrs.  Bok  how  deeply  Mrs.  Roosevelt 
and  I  sympathize  with  her.     We  know  just  how  she  feels. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 

''That's  pretty  fine  consideration,"  said  the  father. 
He  got  the  letter  during  a  business  conference  and  he 
read  it  aloud  to  the  group  of  business  men.  Some 
there  were  in  that  group  who  keenly  differed  with  the 
President  on  national  issues,  but  they  were  all  fathers, 
and  two  of  the  sturdiest  turned  and  walked  to  the  win- 
dow as  they  said:  ''Yes,  that  is  fine!" 

Then  came  the  boy's  pleasure  when  he  was  handed  the 
letter;  the  next  few  days  were  spent  inditing  an  answer 
to  "my  friend,  the  President."  At  last  the  momentous 
epistle  seemed  satisfactory,  and  off  to  the  busy  presi- 
dential desk  went  the  boyish  note,  full  of  thanks  and 
assurances  that  he  would  come  just  as  soon  as  he  could, 
and  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  must  not  get  impatient ! 

The  "soon  as  he  could"  time,  however,  did  not  come 
as  quickly  as  all  had  hoped ! — a  little  heart  pumped  for 
days  full  of  oxygen  and  accelerated  by  hypodermic  in- 
jections is  slow  to  mend.     But  the  President's  framed 


THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  BOY  287 

letter,  hanging  on  the  spot  on  the  wall  first  seen  in  the 
morning,  was  a  daily  consolation. 

Then,  in  March,  although  four  months  after  the  prom- 
ise— and  it  would  not  have  been  strange,  in  his  busy 
life,  for  the  President  to  have  forgotten  or  at  least  over- 
looked it — on  the  very  day  that  the  book  was  published 
came  a  special  "large-paper"  copy  of  The  Outdoor 
Pastimes  of  an  American  Hunter,  and  on  the  fly-leaf  there 
greeted  the  boy,  in  the  President's  own  hand : 

To  Master  Curtis  Bok, 

With  the  best  wishes  of  his  friend, 

Theodore  Roosevelt. 
March  11,  1908. 

The  boy's  cup  was  now  full,  and  so  said  his  letter  to 
the  President.  And  the  President  wrote  back  to  the 
father:  ''I  am  really  immensely  amused  and  interested, 
and  shall  be  mighty  glad  to  see  the  little  fellow." 

In  the  spring,  on  a  beautiful  May  day,  came  the  great 
moment.  The  mother  had  to  go  along,  the  boy  insisted, 
to  see  the  great  event,  and  so  the  trio  found  themselves 
shaking  the  hand  of  the  President's  secretary  at  the 
White  House. 

"Oh,  the  President  is  looking  for  you,  all  right," 
he  said  to  the  boy,  and  then  the  next  moment  the  three 
were  in  a  large  room.  Mr.  Roosevelt,  with  beaming 
face,  was  already  striding  across  the  room,  and  with  a 
"Well,  well,  and  so  this  is  my  friend  Curtis!"  the  two 
stood  looking  into  each  other's  faces,  each  fairly  wreathed 
in  smiles,  and  each  industriously  shaking  the  hand  of 
the  other. 


288  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

"Yes,  Mr.  President,  I'm  mighty  glad  to  see  you!" 
said  the  boy. 

"I  am  glad  to  see  you,  Curtis,"  returned  Mr.  Roose- 
velt. 

Then  there  came  a  white  rose  from  the  presidential 
desk  for  the  mother,  but  after  that  father  and  mother 
might  as  well  have  faded  away.  Nobody  existed  save 
the  President  and  the  boy.  The  anteroom  was  full;  in 
the  Cabinet-room  a  delegation  waited  to  be  addressed. 
But  affairs  of  state  were  at  a  complete  standstill  as, 
with  boyish  zeal,  the  President  became  oblivious  to  all 
but  the  boy  before  him. 

''Now,  Curtis,  I've  got  some  pictures  here  of  bears 
that  a  friend  of  mine  has  just  shot.  Look  at  that 
whopper,  fifteen  hundred  pounds — that's  as  much  as 
a  horse  weighs,  you  know.  Now,  my  friend  shot  him" 
— and  it  was  a  toss-up  who  was  the  more  keenly  inter- 
ested, the  real  boy  or  the  man-boy,  as  picture  after 
picture  came  out  and  bear  adventure  crowded  upon  the 
heels  of  bear  adventure. 

"Gee,  he's  a  corker,  all  right!"  came  from  the  boy 
at  one  point,  and  then,  from  the  President:  "That's 
right,  he  is  a  corker.  Now  you  see  his  head  here" — 
and  then  both  were  off  again. 

The  private  secretary  came  in  at  this  point  and 
whispered  in  the  President's  ear. 

"I  know,  I  know.  I'll  see  him  later.  Say  that  I  am 
very  busy  now."     And  the  face  beamed  with  smiles. 

"Now,  Mr.  President — "  began  the  father. 

"No,  sir;  no,  sir;  not  at  all.  Affairs  can  wait.  This 
is  a  long-standing  engagement  between  Curtis  and  me, 
and  that  must  come  first.     Isn't  that  so,  Curtis  ?  " 


THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  BOY  289 

Of  course  the  boy  agreed. 

Suddenly  the  boy  looked  around  the  room  and  said : 

"Where's  your  gun,  Mr.  President?     Got  it  here?" 

"No,"  laughingly  came  from  the  President,  "but  I'll 
tell  you" — and  then  the  two  heads  were  together  again. 

A  moment  for  breath-taking  came,  and  the  boy  said : 

"Aren't  you  ever  afraid  of  being  shot?" 

"You  mean  while  I  am  hunting?" 

"Oh,  no.     I  mean  as  President." 

"No,"  repHed  the  smiHng  President.  "I'll  tell  you, 
Curtis;  I'm  too  busy  to  think  about  that.  I  have  too 
many  things  to  do  to  bother  about  anything  of  that 
sort.  When  I  was  in  battle  I  was  always  too  anxious  to 
get  to  the  front  to  think  about  the  shots.  And  here — 
well,  here  I'm  too  busy  too.  Never  think  about  it. 
But  I'll  tell  you,  Curtis,  there  are  some  men  down 
there,"  pointing  out  of  the  window  in  the  direction  of 
the  capitol,  "called  the  Congress,  and  if  they  would 
only  give  me  the  four  battleships  I  want,  I'd  be  perfectly 
wilUng  to  have  any  one  take  a  crack  at  me."  Then,  for 
the  first  time  recognizing  the  existence  of  the  parents, 
the  President  said:  "And  I  don't  know  but  if  they  did 
pick  me  off  I'd  be  pretty  well  ahead  of  the  game." 

Just  in  that  moment  only  did  the  boy-knowing  Presi- 
dent get  a  single  inch  above  the  boy-interest.  It  was 
astonishing  to  see  the  natural  accuracy  with  which  the 
man  gauged  the  boy-level. 

"Now,  how  would  you  like  to  see  a  bear,  Curtis?" 
came  next.  "I  know  where  there's  a  beauty,  twelve 
hundred  pounds." 

"Must  be  some  bear!"  interjected  the  boy. 

"That's  what  it  is,"  put  in  the  President.     "Regular 


290  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

cinnamon-brown  type" — and  then  off  went  the  talk 
to  the  big  bear  at  the  Washington  "Zoo"  where  the 
President  was  to  send  the  boy. 

Then,  after  a  little:  "Now,  Curtis,  see  those  men  over 
there  in  that  room.  They've  travelled  from  all  parts  of 
the  comitry  to  come  here  at  my  invitation,  and  I've  got 
to  make  a  little  speech  to  them,  and  I'U  do  that  while 
you  go  off  to  see  the  bear." 

And  then  the  hand  came  forth  to  say  good-by.  The 
boy  put  his  in  it,  each  looked  into  the  other's  face,  and 
on  neither  was  there  a  place  big  enough  to  put  a  ten- 
cent  piece  that  was  not  wreathed  in  smiles.  "He  cer- 
tainly is  aU  right,"  said  the  boy  to  the  father,  looking 
wistfully  after  the  President. 

Almost  to  the  other  room  had  the  President  gone 
when  he,  too,  instinctively  looked  back  to  find  the  boy 
following  him  with  his  eyes.  He  stopped,  wheeled 
around,  and  then  the  two  instinctively  sought  each  other 
again.  The  President  came  back,  the  boy  went  forward. 
This  time  each  held  out  both  hands,  and  as  each  looked 
once  more  into  the  other's  eyes  a  world  of  complete 
understanding  was  in  both  faces,  and  every  looker-on 
smiled  with  them. 

"Good-by,  Curtis,"  came  at  last  from  the  President. 

"Good-by,  Mr.  President,"  came  from  the  boy. 

Then,  with  another  pump-handly  shake  and  with  a 
"Gee,  but  he's  great,  all  right!"  the  boy  went  out  to 
see  the  cinnamon-bear  at  the  "Zoo,"  and  to  Uve  it  all 
over  in  the  days  to  come. 

Two  boy-hearts  had  met,  although  one  of  them  be- 
longed to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 
THE  LITERARY  BACK-STAIRS 

His  complete  absorption  in  the  magazine  work  now 
compelled  Bok  to  close  his  newspaper  syndicate  in  New 
York  and  end  the  writing  of  his  weekly  newspaper  liter- 
ary letter.  He  decided,  however,  to  transfer  to  the 
pages  of  his  magazine  his  idea  of  making  the  American 
public  more  conversant  with  books  and  authors.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  engaged  Robert  Bridges  (the  present  editor 
of  Scribner's  Magazine)  to  write  a  series  of  conversa- 
tional book- talks  under  his  nom  de  plume  of  *'Droch." 
Later,  this  was  supplemented  by  the  engagement  of 
Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  who  for  years  reviewed  the  newest 
books. 

In  almost  every  issue  of  the  magazine  there  appeared 
also  an  article  addressed  to  the  Hterary  novice.  Bok  was 
eager,  of  course,  to  attract  the  new  authors  to  the  maga- 
zine; but,  particularly,  he  had  in  mind  the  correction  of 
the  popular  notion,  then  so  prevalent  (less  so  to-day, 
fortunately,  but  still  existent),  that  only  the  manuscripts 
of  famous  authors  were  given  favorable  reading  in  edi- 
torial offices;  that  in  these  offices  there  really  existed  a 
clique,  and  that  unless  the  writer  knew  the  literary 
back-stairs  he  had  a  slim  chance  to  enter  and  be  heard. 

In    the    minds    of    these  misinformed  writers,   these 

back-stairs  are  gained   by    "  knowing    the   editor "    or 

through    "  having    some   influence  with    him."    These 

291 


292   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

writers  have  conclusively  settled  two  points  in  their 
own  minds:  first,  that  an  editor  is  antagonistic  to  the 
struggling  writer;  and,  second,  that  a  manuscript  sent 
in  the  ordinary  manner  to  an  editor  never  reaches  him. 
Hence,  some  ''influence"  is  necessary,  and  they  set  about 
to  secure  it. 

Now,  the  truth  is,  of  course,  that  there  are  no  "liter- 
ary back-stairs"  to  the  editorial  office  of  the  modem 
magazine.  There  cannot  be.  The  making  of  a  modern 
magazine  is  a  business  proposition;  the  editor  is  there 
to  make  it  pay.  He  can  do  this  only  if  he  is  of  service 
to  his  readers,  and  that  depends  on  his  ability  to  obtain 
a  class  of  material  essentially  the  best  of  its  kind  and 
varied  in  its  character. 

The  "best,"  while  it  means  good  writing,  means  also 
that  it  shall  say  something.  The  most  desired  writer 
in  the  magazine  office  is  the  man  who  has  something  to 
say,  and  knows  how  to  say  it.  Variety  requires  that 
there  shall  be  many  of  these  writers,  and  it  is  the  edi- 
tor's business  to  ferret  them  out.  It  stands  to  reason, 
therefore,  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  "clique"; 
limitation  by  the  editor  of  his  list  of  authors  would 
mean  being  limited  to  the  style  of  the  few  and  the 
thoughts  of  a  handful.  And  with  a  public  that  easily 
tires  even  of  the  best  where  it  continually  comes  from 
one  source,  such  an  editorial  policy  would  be  suicidal. 

Hence,  if  the  editor  is  more  keenly  alert  for  one  thing 
than  for  another,  it  is  for  the  new  writer.  The  fre- 
quency of  the  new  note  in  his  magazine  is  his  salvation ; 
for  just  in  proportion  as  he  can  introduce  that  new  note 
is  his  success  with  his  readers.    A  successful  magazine 


THE   LITERARY  BACK-STAIRS  293 

is  exactly  like  a  successful  store:  it  must  keep  its  wares 
constantly  fresh  and  varied  to  attract  the  eye  and  hold 
the  patronage  of  its  customers. 

With  an  editor  ever  alive  to  the  new  message,  the 
new  note,  the  fresh  way  of  saying  a  thing,  the  new  angle 
on  a  current  subject,  whether  in  article  or  story — since 
fiction  is  really  to-day  only  a  reflection  of  modern 
thought — the  foolish  notion  that  an  editor  must  be  ap- 
proached through  ''influence,"  by  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion from  some  friend  or  other  author,  falls  of  itself. 
There  is  no  more  powerful  lever  to  open  the  modern 
magazine  door  than  a  postage-stamp  on  an  envelope 
containing  a  manuscript  that  says  something.  No  in- 
fluence is  needed  to  bring  that  manuscript  to  the  edi- 
tor's desk  or  to  his  attention.  That  he  will  receive  it  the 
sender  need  not  for  a  moment  doubt;  his  mail  is  too 
closely  scanned  for  that  very  envelope. 

The  most  successful  authors  have  "broken  into"  the 
magazines  very  often  without  even  a  letter  accompany- 
ing their  first  manuscript.  The  name  and  address  in 
the  right-hand  corner  of  the  first  page;  some  "return" 
stamps  in  the  left  corner,  and  all  that  the  editor  re- 
quires is  there.  The  author  need  tell  nothing  about  the 
manuscript;  if  what  the  editor  wants  is  in  it  he  will  find 
it.  An  editor  can  stand  a  tremendous  amount  of  letting 
alone.  If  young  authors  could  be  made  to  realize  how 
simple  is  the  process  of  "breaking  into"  the  modern 
magazine,  which  apparently  gives  them  such  needless 
heartburn,  they  would  save  themselves  infinite  pains, 
time,  and  worry. 

Despite  all  the  rubbish  written  to  the  contrar>%  manu- 


294  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

scripts  sent  to  the  magazines  of  to-day  are,  in  every 
case,  read,  and  frequently  more  carefully  read  than  the 
author  imagines.  Editors  know  that,  from  the  stand- 
point of  good  business  alone,  it  is  unwise  to  return  a 
manuscript  unread.  Literary  talent  has  been  found 
in  many  instances  where  it  was  least  expected. 

This  does  not  mean  that  every  manuscript  received 
by  a  magazine  is  read  from  first  page  to  last.  There  is 
no  reason  why  it  should  be,  any  more  than  that  all  of  a 
bad  egg  should  be  eaten  to  prove  that  it  is  bad.  The 
title  alone  sometimes  decides  the  fate  of  a  manuscript. 
If  the  subject  discussed  is  entirely  foreign  to  the  aims 
of  the  magazine,  it  is  simply  a  case  of  misapplication 
on  the  author's  part;  and  it  would  be  a  waste  of  time 
for  the  editor  to  read  something  which  he  knows  from 
its  subject  he  cannot  use. 

This,  of  course,  apphes  more  to  articles  than  to  other 
forms  of  literary  work,  although  unsuitabiUty  in  a  poem 
is  naturally  as  quickly  detected.  Stories,  no  matter 
how  unpromising  they  may  appear  at  the  beginning,  are 
generally  read  through,  since  gold  in  a  piece  of  fiction 
has  often  been  found  almost  at  the  close.  This  careful 
attention  to  manuscripts  in  editorial  offices  is  fixed  by 
rules,  and  an  author's  indorsement  or  a  friend's  judg- 
ment never  affects  the  custom. 

At  no  time  does  the  fallacy  hold  in  a  magazine  office 
that  "a  big  name  counts  for  everything  and  an  unknown 
name  for  nothing."  There  can  be  no  denial  of  the  fact 
that  where  a  name  of  repute  is  attached  to  a  meritorious 
story  or  article  the  combination  is  ideal.  But  as  be- 
tween an  indifferent  story  and  a  well-known  name  and 


THE  LITERARY  BACK-STAIRS  295 

a  good  story  with  an  unknown  name  the  editor  may  be 
depended  upon  to  accept  the  latter.  Editors  are  very 
careful  nowadays  to  avoid  the  public  impatience  that 
invariably  follows  upon  publishing  material  simply  on 
account  of  the  name  attached  to  it.  Nothing  so  quickly 
injures  the  reputation  of  a  magazine  in  the  estimation 
of  its  readers.  If  a  person,  taking  up  a  magazine,  reads 
a  story  attracted  by  a  famous  name,  and  the  story  dis- 
appoints, the  editor  has  a  doubly  disappointed  reader 
on  his  hands:  a  reader  whose  high  expectations  from  the 
name  have  not  been  realized  and  who  is  disappointed 
with  the  story. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  among  successful  magazine 
editors  that  their  most  striking  successes  have  been 
made  by  material  to  which  unknown  names  were  at- 
tached, where  the  material  was  fresh,  the  approach  new, 
the  note  different.  That  is  what  builds  up  a  magazine; 
the  reader  learns  to  have  confidence  in  what  he  finds  in 
the  periodical,  whether  it  bears  a  famous  name  or  not. 

Nor  must  the  young  author  believe  that  the  best  work 
in  modern  magazine  Hterature  "is  dashed  off  at  white 
heat."  What  is  dashed  off  reads  dashed  off,  and  one 
does  not  come  across  it  in  the  well-edited  magazine,  be- 
cause it  is  never  accepted.  Good  writing  is  laborious 
writing,  the  result  of  revision  upon  revision.  The  work 
of  masters  such  as  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  and  Rudyard 
Kipling  represents  never  less  than  eight  or  ten  revisions, 
and  often  a  far  greater  number.  It  was  Stevenson  who 
once  said  to  Edward  Bok,  after  a  laborious  correction  of 
certain  proofs:  "My  boy,  I  could  be  a  healthy  man,  I 
think,  if  I  did  something  else  than  writing.     But  to 


2q6  the  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

write,  as  I  try  to  write,  takes  every  ounce  of  my  vital- 
ity." Just  as  the  best  "impromptu"  speeches  are  those 
most  carefully  prepared,  so  do  the  simplest  articles  and 
stories  represent  the  hardest  kind  of  work;  the  simpler 
the  method  seems  and  the  easier  the  article  reads,  the 
harder,  it  is  safe  to  say,  was  the  work  put  into  it. 

But  the  author  must  also  know  when  to  let  his  ma- 
terial alone.  In  his  excessive  regard  for  style  even  so 
great  a  master  as  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  robbed  his  work 
of  much  of  the  spontaneity  and  natural  charm  found, 
for  example,  in  his  Vailima  Letters.  The  main  thing  is 
for  a  writer  to  say  what  he  has  to  say  in  the  best  way, 
natural  to  himself,  in  which  he  can  say  it,  and  then  let 
it  alone — always  remembering  that,  provided  he  has 
made  himself  clear,  the  message  itself  is  of  greater  im- 
port than  the  manner  in  which  it  is  said.  Up  to  a 
certain  point  only  is  a  piece  of  literary  work  an  artistic 
endeavor.  A  readable,  lucid  style  is  far  preferable  to 
what  is  called  a  "literary  style" — a  foolish  phrase,  since 
it  often  means  nothing  except  a  complicated  method  of 
expression  which  confuses  rather  than  clarifies  thought. 
What  the  public  wants  in  its  literature  is  human  na- 
ture, and  that  human  nature  simply  and  forcibly  ex- 
pressed. This  is  fundamental,  and  this  is  why  true 
literature  has  no  fashion  and  knows  no  change,  despite 
the  cries  of  the  modern  weaklings  who  affect  weird 
forms.  The  clarity  of  Shakespeare  is  the  clarity  of 
to-day  and  will  be  that  of  to-morrow. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
WOMEN'S  CLUBS  AND   WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 

Edward  Bok  was  now  jumping  from  one  sizzling 
frying-pan  into  another.  He  had  become  vitally  in- 
terested in  the  growth  of  women's  clubs  as  a  power  for 
good,  and  began  to  follow  their  work  and  study  their 
methods.  He  attended  meetings;  he  had  his  editors 
attend  others  and  give  him  reports;  he  collected  and 
read  the  year-books  of  scores  of  clubs,  and  he  secured 
and  read  a  number  of  the  papers  that  had  been  pre- 
sented by  members  at  these  meetings.  He  saw  at  once 
that  what  might  prove  a  wonderful  power  in  the  civic 
life  of  the  nation  was  being  misdirected  into  gatherings 
of  pseudo-culture,  where  papers  ill-digested  and  mostly 
copied  from  books  were  read  and  superficially  discussed. 

Apparently  the  average  club  thought  nothing  of  dis- 
posing of  the  works  of  the  Victorian  poets  in  one  after- 
noon; the  Italian  Renaissance  was  ''fully  treated  and 
most  ably  discussed,"  according  to  one  programme,  at 
a  single  meeting;  Rembrandt  and  his  school  were  like- 
wise disposed  of  in  one  afternoon,  and  German  litera- 
ture was  "adequately  treated"  at  one  session  "in  able 
papers." 

Bok  gathered  a  mass  of  this  material,  and  then  paid 
his  respects  to  it  in  the  magazine.  He  recited  his  evi- 
dence and  then  expressed  his  opinion  of  it.    He  realized 

that  his  arraignment  of  the  clubs  would  cost  the  maga- 

297 


298   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

zine  hundreds  of  friends;  but,  convinced  of  the  great 
power  of  the  woman's  club  with  its  activities  rightly  di- 
rected, he  concluded  that  he  could  afford  to  risk  in- 
curring displeasure  if  he  might  point  the  way  to  more 
effective  work.    The  one  was  worth  the  other. 

The  displeasure  was  not  slow  in  making  itself  mani- 
fest. It  came  to  maturity  overnight,  as  it  were,  and 
expressed  itself  in  no  uncertain  terms.  Every  club 
flew  to  arms,  and  Bok  was  intensely  interested  to  note 
that  the  clubs  whose  work  he  had  taken  as  ''horrible 
examples,"  although  he  had  not  mentioned  their  names, 
were  the  most  strenuous  in  their  denials  of  the  methods 
outlined  in  the  magazine,  and  that  the  members  of 
those  clubs  were  particularly  heated  in  their  attacks 
upon  him. 

He  soon  found  that  he  had  stirred  up  quite  as  active 
a  hornet's  nest  as  he  had  anticipated.  Letters  by  the 
hundred  poured  in  attacking  and  reviling  him.  In 
nearly  every  case  the  writers  fell  back  upon  personal 
abuse,  ignoring  his  arguments  altogether.  He  became 
the  subject  of  heated  debates  at  club  meetings,  at  con- 
ventions, in  the  public  press;  and  soon  long  petitions 
demanding  his  removal  as  editor  began  to  come  to  Mr. 
Curtis.  These  petitions  were  signed  by  hundreds  of 
names.  Bok  read  them  with  absorbed  interest,  and 
bided  his  time  for  action.  Meanwhile  he  continued  his 
articles  of  criticism  in  the  magazine,  and  these,  of  course, 
added  fuel  to  the  conflagration. 

Former  President  Cleveland  now  came  to  Bok's  side, 
and  in  an  article  in  the  magazine  went  even  further 
than  Bok  had  ever  thought  of  going  in  his  criticism  of 


WOMEN'S   CLUBS  AND  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE    299 

women's  clubs.  This  article  deflected  the  criticism  from 
Bok  momentarily,  and  Mr.  Cleveland  received  a  grilling 
to  which  his  experiences  in  the  White  House  were  "as 
child's  play,"  as  he  expressed  it.  The  two  men,  the 
editor  and  the  former  President,  were  now  bracketed  as 
copartners  in  crime  in  the  eyes  of  the  club-women,  and 
nothing  too  harsh  could  be  found  to  say  or  write  of 
either. 

Meanwhile  Bok  had  been  watching  the  petitions  for 
his  removal  which  kept  coming  in.  He  was  looking 
for  an  opening,  and  soon  found  it.  One  of  the  most 
prominent  women's  clubs  sent  a  protest  condemning 
his  attitude  and  advising  him  by  resolutions,  which 
were  enclosed,  that  unless  he  ceased  his  attacks,  the 

members  of  the  Woman's  Club  had  resolved  "to 

unitedly  and  unanimously  boycott  The  Ladies^  Home 
Journal  and  had  already  put  the  plan  into  effect  with  the 
current  issue." 

Bok  immediately  engaged  counsel  in  the  city  where 
the  club  was  situated,  and  instructed  his  lawyer  to  begin 
proceedings,  for  violation  of  the  Sherman  Act,  against 
the  president  and  the  secretary  of  the  club,  and  three 
other  members;  counsel  to  take  particular  pains  to 
choose,  if  possible,  the  wives  of  three  la'w^'ers. 

Within  forty-eight  hours  Bok  heard  from  the  husbands 
of  the  five  wives,  who  pointed  out  to  him  that  the 
women  had  acted  in  entire  ignorance  of  the  law,  and  sug- 
gested a  reconsideration  of  his  action.  Bok  replied 
by  quoting  from  the  petition  which  set  forth  that  it 

was  signed  "by  the  most  intelligent  women  of who 

were  thoroughly  versed  in  civic  and  national  afifairs"; 


300  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

and  if  this  were  true,  Bok  argued,  it  naturally  followed 
that  they  must  have  been  cognizant  of  a  legislative 
measure  so  well  known  and  so  widely  discussed  as  the 
Sherman  Act.  He  was  basing  his  action,  he  said, 
merely  on  their  declaration. 

Bok  could  easily  picture  to  himself  the  chagrin  and 
wrath  of  the  women,  with  the  husbands  laughing  up 
their  sleeves  at  the  turn  of  affairs.  "My  wife  never 
could  see  the  humor  in  the  situation,"  said  one  of  these 
husbands  to  Bok,  when  he  met  him  years  later.  Bok 
capitulated,  and  then  apparently  with  great  reluctance, 
only  when  the  club  sent  him  an  official  withdrawal  of 
the  protest  and  an  apology  for  "its  ill-considered  ac- 
tion." It  was  years  after  that  one  of  the  members  of 
the  club,  upon  meeting  Bok,  said  to  him:  "Your 
action  did  not  increase  the  club's  love  for  you,  but  you 
taught  it  a  much-needed  lesson  which  it  never  forgot." 

Up  to  this  time,  Bok  had  purposely  been  destructive 
in  his  criticism.  Now,  he  pointed  out  a  constructive 
plan  whereby  the  woman's  club  could  make  itself  a  power 
in  every  community.  He  advocated  less  of  the  cultural 
and  more  of  the  civic  interest,  and  urged  that  the  clubs 
study  the  numerous  questions  dealing  with  the  life  of 
their  communities.  This  seems  strange,  in  view  of  the 
enormous  amount  of  civic  work  done  by  women's  clubs 
to-day.  But  at  that  time,  when  the  woman's  club 
movement  was  unformed,  these  civic  matters  found  but 
a  small  part  in  the  majority  of  programmes;  in  a  num- 
ber of  cases  none  at  all. 

Of  course,  the  clubs  refused  to  accept  or  even  to  con- 
sider his  suggestions;    they  were   quite  competent  to 


WOMEN'S  CLUBS  AND  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE    301 

decide  for  themselves  the  particular  subjects  for  their 
meetings,  they  argued;  they  did  not  care  to  be  tutored 
or  guided,  particularly  by  Bok.  They  were  much  too 
angry  with  him  even  to  admit  that  his  suggestions  were 
practical  and  in  order.  But  he  knew,  of  course,  that 
they  would  adopt  them  of  their  own  volition — under 
cover,  perhaps,  but  that  made  no  difference,  so  long 
as  the  end  was  accomplished.  One  club  after  another, 
during  the  following  years,  changed  its  programme, 
and  soon  the  supposed  cultural  interest  had  yielded  first 
place  to  the  needful  civic  questions. 

For  years,  however,  the  clubwomen  of  America  did 
not  forgive  Bok.  They  refused  to  buy  or  countenance 
his  magazine,  and  periodically  they  attacked  it  or  made 
light  of  it.  But  he  knew  he  had  made  his  point,  and 
was  content  to  leave  it  to  time  to  heal  the  wounds. 
This  came  years  afterward,  when  Mrs.  Pennypacker 
became  president  of  the  General  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs  and  Mrs.  Rudolph  Blankenburg,  vice-president. 

Those  two  far-seeing  women  and  Bok  arranged  that 
an  official  department  of  the  Federation  should  find 
a  place  in  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal,  with  Mrs.  Penny- 
packer  as  editor  and  Mrs.  Blankenburg,  who  lived  in 
Philadelphia,  as  the  resident  consulting  editor.  The 
idea  was  arranged  agreeably  to  all  three ;  the  Federation 
officially  endorsed  its  president's  suggestion,  and  for 
several  years  the  department  was  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful in  the  magazine. 

The  breach  had  been  healed;  two  powerful  forces 
were  working  together,  as  they  should,  for  the  mutual 
good  of  the  American  woman.     No  relations  could  have 


302   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

been  pleasanter  than  those  between  the  editor-in-chief 
of  the  magazine  and  the  two  departmental  editors.  The 
report  was  purposely  set  afloat  that  Bok  had  withdrawn 
from  his  position  of  antagonism  (?)  toward  women's 
clubs,  and  this  gave  great  satisfaction  to  thousands  of 
women  club-members  and  made  everybody  happy ! 

At  this  time  the  question  of  suffrage  for  women  was 
fast  becoming  a  prominent  issue,  and  naturally  Bok  was 
asked  to  take  a  stand  on  the  question  in  his  magazine. 
No  man  sat  at  a  larger  gateway  to  learn  the  sentiments 
of  numbers  of  women  on  any  subject.  He  read  his  vast 
correspondence  carefully.  He  consulted  women  of  every 
grade  of  intelligence  and  in  every  station  in  life.  Then 
he  caused  a  straw-vote  to  be  taken  among  a  selected  list 
of  thousands  of  his  subscribers  in  large  cities  and  in 
small  towns.  The  result  of  all  these  inquiries  was  most 
emphatic  and  clear:  by  far  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  women  approached  either  were  opposed  to  the 
ballot  or  were  indifferent  to  it.  Those  who  desired  to 
try  the  experiment  were  negligible  in  number.  So  far 
as  the  sentiment  of  any  wide  public  can  be  secured  on 
any  given  topic,  this  seemed  to  be  the  dominant  opinion. 

Bok  then  instituted  a  systematic  investigation  of  con- 
ditions in  those  states  where  women  had  voted  for  years; 
but  he  could  not  see,  from  a  thoughtful  study  of  his  in- 
vestigations, that  much  had  been  accomplished.  The 
results  certainly  did  not  measure  up  to  the  prophecies 
constantly  advanced  by  the  advocates  of  a  nation-wide 
equal  suffrage. 

The  editor  now  carefully  looked  into  the  speeches  of 
the  sufi"ragists,  examined  the  platform  of  the  National 


WOMEN'S  CLUBS  AND  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE    303 

body  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage,  and  talked  at  length 
with  such  leaders  in  the  movement  as  Susan  B.  Anthony, 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  Anna  Howard  Shaw,  and  Jane 
Addams. 

All  this  time  Bok  had  kept  his  own  mind  open.  He 
was  ready  to  have  the  magazine,  for  whose  editorial 
policy  he  was  responsible,  advocate  that  side  of  the  issue 
which  seemed  for  the  best  interests  of  the  American 
woman. 

The  arguments  that  a  woman  should  not  have  a  vote 
because  she  was  a  woman;  that  it  would  interfere  with 
her  work  in  the  home;  that  it  would  make  her  more 
masculine;  that  it  would  take  her  out  of  her  own  home; 
th^.t  it  was  a  blow  at  domesticity  and  an  actual  men- 
ace to  the  home  life  of  America — these  did  not  weigh 
with  him.  There  was  only  one  question  for  him  to 
settle:  Was  the  ballot  something  which,  in  its  demon- 
strated value  or  in  its  potentiality,  would  serve  the  best 
interests  of  American  womanhood? 

After  all  his  investigations  of  both  sides  of  the  ques- 
tion, Bok  decided  upon  a  negative  answer.  He  felt  that 
American  women  were  not  ready  to  exercise  the  privilege 
intelligently  and  that  their  mental  attitude  was  against  it. 

Forthwith  he  said  so  in  his  magazine.  And  the  storm 
broke.  The  denunciations  brought  down  upon  him 
by  his  attitude  toward  woman's  clubs  was  as  nothing 
compared  to  what  was  now  let  loose.  The  attacks  were 
bitter.  His  arguments  were  ignored;  and  the  suffragists 
evidently  decided  to  concentrate  their  criticisms  upon 
the  youthful  years  of  the  editor.  They  regarded  this  as 
a  most  vulnerable  point  of  attack,  and  reams  of  paper 


304   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

were  used  to  prove  that  the  opinion  of  a  man  so  young 
in  years  and  so  necessarily  unformed  in  his  judgment 
was  of  no  value. 

Unfortunately,  the  suffragists  did  not  know,  when 
they  advanced  this  argument,  that  it  would  be  over- 
thrown by  the  endorsement  of  Bok's  point  of  view  by 
such  men  and  women  of  years  and  ripe  judgment  as 
Doctor  Eliot,  then  president  of  Harvard  University, 
former  President  Cleveland,  Lyman  Abbott,  Margaret 
Deland,  and  others.  When  articles  by  these  opponents 
to  suffrage  appeared,  the  argument  of  youth  hardly  held 
good;  and  the  attacks  of  the  suffragists  were  quickly 
shifted  to  the  ground  of  "narrow-mindedness  and  old- 
fashioned  fogyism." 

The  article  by  former  President  Cleveland  particu- 
larly stirred  the  ire  of  the  attacking  suffragists,  and  Miss 
Anthony  hurled  a  broadside  at  the  former  President  in  a 
newspaper  interview.  Unfortunately  for  her  best  judg- 
ment, and  the  strength  of  her  argument,  the  attack 
became  intensely  personal;  and  of  course,  nullified  its 
force.  But  it  irritated  Mr.  Cleveland,  who  called  Bok 
to  his  Princeton  home  and  read  him  a  draft  of  a  proposed 
answer  for  publication  in  Bok's  magazine. 

Those  who  knew  Mr.  Cleveland  were  well  aware  of 
the  force  that  he  could  put  into  his  pen  when  he  chose, 
and  in  this  proposed  article  he  certainly  chose !  It 
would  have  made  very  unpleasant  reading  for  IMiss 
Anthony  in  particular,  as  well  as  for  her  friends.  Bok 
argued  strongly  against  the  article.  He  reminded  IMr. 
Cleveland  that  it  would  be  undignified  to  make  such 
an  answer;    that  it  was  always  an  unpopular  thing  to 


WOMEN'S  CLUBS  AISTD  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE    305 

attack  a  woman  in  public,  especially  a  woman  who  was 
old  and  ill;  that  she  would  again  strive  for  the  last  word; 
that  there  would  be  no  point  to  the  controversy  and  noth- 
ing gained  by  it.  He  pleaded  with  Mr.  Cleveland  to 
meet  Miss  Anthony's  attack  by  a  dignified  silence. 

These  arguments  happily  prevailed.  In  reality,  Mr. 
Cleveland  was  not  keen  to  attack  Miss  Anthony  or  any 
other  woman;  such  a  thought  was  foreign  to  his  nature. 
He  summed  up  his  feeling  to  Bok  when  he  tore  up  the 
draft  of  his  article  and  smiHngly  said:  "Well,  I've  got 
it  off  my  chest,  that  is  the  main  thing.  I  wanted  to 
get  it  out  of  my  system,  and  talking  it  over  has  driven 
it  out.  It  is  better  in  the  fire,"  and  he  threw  the  torn 
paper  into  the  open  grate. 

As  events  turned  out,  it  was  indeed  fortunate  that  the 
matter  had  been  so  decided;  for  the  article  would  have 
appeared  in  the  number  of  Bok's  magazine  published 
on  the  day  that  Miss  Anthony  passed  away.  It  would 
have  been  a  most  unfortunate  moment,  to  say  the  least, 
for  the  appearance  of  an  attack  such  as  Mr.  Cleveland 
had  in  mind. 

This  incident,  like  so  many  instances  that  might  be 
adduced,  points  with  singular  force  to  the  value  of  that 
editorial  discrimination  which  the  editor  often  makes 
between  what  is  wise  or  unwise  for  him  to  publish. 
Bok  realized  that  had  he  encouraged  Mr.  Cleveland  to 
publish  the  article,  he  could  have  exhausted  any  edition 
he  might  have  chosen  to  print.  Times  without  number, 
editors  make  such  decisions  directly  against  what  would 
be  of  temporary  advantage  to  their  publications.  The 
public  never  hears  of  these  incidents. 


3o6  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

More  often  than  not  the  editor  hears  "stories"  that, 
if  printed,  would  be  a  "scoop"  which  would  cause  his 
publication  to  be  talked  about  from  one  end  of  the  coun- 
try to  the  other.  The  public  does  not  give  credit  to  the 
editor,  particularly  of  the  modern  newspaper,  for  the 
high  code  of  honor  which  constantly  actuates  him  in  his 
work.  The  prevailing  notion  is  that  an  editor  prints 
all  that  he  knows,  and  much  that  he  does  not  know. 
Outside  of  those  in  the  inner  government  circles,  no 
group  of  men,  during  the  Great  War,  had  more  informa- 
tion of  a  confidential  nature  constantly  given  or  brought 
to  them,  and  more  zealously  guarded  it,  than  the  editors 
of  the  newspapers  of  America.  Among  no  other  set  of 
professional  men  is  the  code  of  honor  so  high;  and  woe 
betide  the  journalist  who,  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellow-work- 
ers, violates,  even  in  the  slightest  degree,  that  code  of 
editorial  ethics.  Public  men  know  how  true  is  this 
statement;  the  public  at  large,  however,  has  not  the 
first  conception  of  it.  If  it  had,  it  would  have  a  much 
higher  opinion  of  its  periodicals  and  newspapers. 

At  this  juncture,  Rudyard  Kipling  unconsciously 
came  into  the  very  centre  of  the  suffragists'  maelstrom  of 
attack  when  he  sent  Bok  his  famous  poem:  "The  Fe- 
male of  the  Species."  The  suffragists  at  once  took  the 
argument  in  the  poem  as  personal  to  themselves,  and 
now  Kipling  got  the  full  benefit  of  their  vitriolic  abuse. 
Bok  sent  a  handful  of  these  criticisms  to  Kipling,  who 
was  very  gleeful  about  them.  "I  owe  you  a  good  laugh 
over  the  clippings,"  he  wrote.  "They  were  delightful. 
But  what  a  quantity  of  spare  time  some  people  in  this 
world  have  to  burn  ! " 


WOMEN'S  CLUBS  AND  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE    307 

It  was  a  merry  time;  and  the  longer  it  continued 
the  more  heated  were  the  attacks.  The  suffragists 
now  had  a  number  of  targets,  and  they  took  each  in 
turn  and  proceeded  to  riddle  it.  That  Bok  was  publish- 
ing articles  explaining  both  sides  of  the  question,  pre- 
senting arguments  by  the  leading  suffragists  as  well  as 
known  anti-suffragists,  did  not  matter  in  the  least. 
These  were  either  conveniently  overlooked,  or,  when 
referred  to  at  all,  were  considered  in  the  light  of  "sops" 
to  the  offended  women. 

At  last  Bok  reached  the  stage  where  he  had  exhausted 
all  the  arguments  worth  printing,  on  both  sides  of  the 
questior ,  and  soon  the  storm  calmed  down. 

It  was  always  a  matter  of  gratification  to  him  that  the 
woman  who  had  most  bitterly  assailed  him  during  the 
suffrage  controversy,  Anna  Howard  Shaw,  became  in 
later  years  one  of  his  stanchest  friends,  and  was  an 
editor  on  his  pay-roll.  When  the  United  States  entered 
the  Great  War,  Bok  saw  that  Doctor  Shaw  had  under- 
taken a  gigantic  task  in  promising,  as  chairman,  to  direct 
the  activities  of  the  National  Council  for  Women.  He 
went  to  see  her  in  Washington,  and  offered  his  help  and 
that  of  the  magazine.  Doctor  Shaw,  kindliest  of 
women  in  her  nature,  at  once  accepted  the  offer;  Bok 
placed  the  entire  resources  of  the  magazine  and  of  its 
Washington  editorial  force  at  her  disposal;  and  all 
through  America's  participation  in  the  war,  she  success- 
fully conducted  a  monthly  department  in  The  Ladies^ 
Home  Journal. 

"Such  help,"  she  wrote  at  the  close,  "as  you  and 
your  associates  have  extended  me  and  my  co-workers; 


3o8  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

such  unstinted  co-operation  and  such  practical  guidance 
I  never  should  have  dreamed  possible.  You  made  your 
magazine  a  living  force  in  our  work;  we  do  not  see  now 
how  we  would  have  done  without  it.  You  came  into 
our  activities  at  the  psychological  moment,  when  we 
most  needed  what  you  could  give  us,  and  none  could 
have  given  with  more  open  hands  and  fuller  hearts." 

So  the  contending  forces  in  a  bitter  word-war  came  to- 
gether and  worked  together,  and  a  mutual  regard  sprang 
up  between  the  woman  and  the  man  who  had  once  so 
radically  differed. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
GOING  HOME  WITH  KIPLING,  AND  AS  A  LECTURER 

It  was  in  June,  1899,  when  Rudyard  Kipling,  after 
the  loss  of  his  daughter  and  his  own  almost  fatal  illness 
from  pneumonia  in  America,  sailed  for  his  English  home 
on  the  White  Star  liner,  Teutonic.  The  party  consisted 
of  Kipling,  his  wife,  his  father  J.  Lockwood  Kipling, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frank  N.  Doubleday,  and  Bok.  It  was 
only  at  tne  last  moment  that  Bok  decided  to  join  the 
party,  and  the  steamer  having  its  fuU  complement  of 
passengers,  he  could  only  secure  one  of  the  officers'  large 
rooms  on  the  upper  deck.  Owing  to  the  sensitive  con- 
dition of  Kipling's  lungs,  it  was  not  wise  for  him  to  be 
out  on  deck  except  in  the  most  favorable  weather.  The 
atmosphere  of  the  smoking-room  was  forbidding,  and 
as  the  rooms  of  the  rest  of  the  party  were  below  deck, 
it  was  decided  to  make  Bok's  convenient  room  the  head- 
quarters of  the  party.  Here  they  assembled  for  the 
best  part  of  each  day;  the  talk  ranged  over  literary  and 
publishing  matters  of  mutual  interest,  and  Kipling 
promptly  labelled  the  room  ''The  Hatchery," — from  the 
plans  and  schemes  that  were  hatched  during  these  dis- 
cussions. 

It  was  decided  on  the  first  day  out  that  the  party,  too 
active-minded  to  remain  inert  for  any  length  of  time, 
should  publish  a  daily  newspaper  to  be  written  on  large 
sheets  of  paper  and  to  be  read  each  evening  to  the  group. 

309 


3IO  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

It  was  called  The  Teuton  Tonic;  Mr.  Doubleday  was 
appointed  publisher  and  advertising  manager;  Mr. 
Lockwood  Kipling  was  made  art  editor  to  embellish  the 
news;  Rudyard  Kipling  was  the  star  reporter,  and  Bok 
was  editor. 

KipUng,  just  released  from  his  long  confinement,  like 
a  boy  out  of  school,  was  the  life  of  the  party — and  when, 
one  day,  he  found  a  woman  aboard  reading  a  copy  of 
The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  his  joy  knew  no  bounds;  he 
turned  in  the  most  inimitable  "copy"  to  the  Tonic j 
describing  the  woman's  feeUngs  as  she  read  the  differ- 
ent departments  in  the  magazine.  Of  course,  Bok, 
as  editor  of  the  Tonic,  promptly  pigeon-holed  the  re- 
porter's "copy";  then  relented,  and,  in  a  fine  spirit  of 
large-mindedness,  "printed"  KipHng's  paeans  of  rapture 
over  Bok's  subscriber.  The  preparation  of  the  paper 
was  a  daily  joy:  it  kept  the  different  members  busy, 
and  each  evening  the  copy  was  handed  to  "the  large 
circle  of  readers" — the  two  women  of  the  party — to 
read  aloud.  At  the  end  of  the  sixth  day,  it  was  voted 
to  "suspend  publication,"  and  the  daily  of  six  issues 
was  unanimously  bequeathed  to  the  little  daughter  of 
Mr.  Lockwood  de  Forest,  a  close  friend  of  the  Kiphng 
family — a  choice  bit  of  Kiplingania. 

One  day  it  was  decided  by  the  party  that  Bok  should 
be  taught  the  game  of  poker,  and  Kipling  at  once  offered 
to  be  the  instructor !  He  wrote  out  a  Ust  of  the  "hands " 
for  Bok's  guidance,  which  was  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
table,  and  the  party,  augmented  by  the  women,  gathered 
to  see  the  game. 

A  baby  had  been  born  that  evening  in  the  steerage, 


GOING  HOME  WITH  KIPLING  311 

and  it  was  decided  to  inaugurate  a  small  "jack -pot" 
for  the  benefit  of  the  mother.  AU  went  well  until 
about  the  fourth  hand,  when  Bok  began  to  bid  higher 
than  had  been  originally  planned.  Kipling  questioned 
the  beginner's  knowledge  of  the  game  and  his  tactics, 
but  Bok  retorted  it  was  his  money  that  he  was  putting 
into  the  pot  and  that  no  one  was  compelled  to  follow 
his  bets  if  he  did  not  choose  to  do  so.  Finally,  the 
jack-pot  assumed  altogether  too  large  dimensions  for 
the  party,  Kipling  "called"  and  Bok,  true  to  the  old 
idea  of  "beginner's  luck"  in  cards,  laid  down  a  royal 
flush !  This  was  too  much,  and  poker,  with  Bok  in  it, 
was  taboo  from  that  moment.  Kipling's  version  of 
this  card-playing  does  not  agree  in  all  particulars  with 
the  version  here  written.  "Bok  learned  the  game  of 
poker,"  Kipling  says;  "had  the  deck  stacked  on  him, 
and  on  hearing  that  there  was  a  woman  aboard  who 
read  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  insisted  on  pla}ang  after 
that  with  the  cabin-door  carefully  shut."  But  Kip- 
ling's art  as  a  reporter  for  Tke  Tonic  was  not  as  reliable 
as  the  art  of  his  more  careful  book  work. 

Bok  derived  special  pleasure  on  this  trip  from  his 
acquaintance  with  Father  Kipling,  as  the  party  called 
him.  Rudyard  Kipling's  respect  for  his  father  was  the 
tribute  of  a  loyal  son  to  a  wonderful  father. 

"What  annoys  me,"  said  Kipling,  speaking  of  his 
father  one  day,  "is  when  the  pater  comes  to  America 
to  have  him  referred  to  in  the  newspapers  as  '  the  father 
of  Rudyard  KipUng.'  It  is  in  India  where  they  get  the 
relation  correct:  there  I  am  always  'the  son  of  Lock- 
wood  KipUng.'" 


312    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

Father  Kipling  was,  in  every  sense,  a  choice  spirit: 
gentle,  kindly,  and  of  a  most  remarkably  even  tempera- 
ment. His  knowedge  of  art,  his  wide  reading,  his  ex- 
tensive travel,  and  an  interest  in  every  phase  of  the 
world's  doings,  made  him  a  rare  conversationalist,  when 
inclined  to  talk,  and  an  encyclopaedia  of  knowledge  as 
extensive  as  it  was  accurate.  It  was  very  easy  to  grow 
fond  of  Father  KipUng,  and  he  won  Bok's  affection  as 
few  men  ever  did. 

Father  KipHng's  conversation  was  remarkable  in  that 
he  was  exceedingly  careful  of  language  and  wasted  few 
words. 

One  day  Kipling  and  Bok  were  engaged  in  a  discus- 
sion of  the  Boer  problem,  which  was  then  pressing. 
Father  KipHng  sat  by  listening,  but  made  no  comment 
on  the  divergent  views,  since,  Kipling  holding  the  Eng- 
lish side  of  the  question  and  Bok  the  Dutch  side,  it 
followed  that  they  could  not  agree.  Finally  Father 
Kipling  arose  and  said:  "Well,  I  will  take  a  stroll  and 
see  if  I  can't  listen  to  the  water  and  get  all  this  din  out 
of  my  ears." 

Both  men  felt  gently  but  firmly  rebuked  and  the  dis- 
cussion was  never  again  taken  up. 

Bok  tried  on  one  occasion  to  ascertain  how  the  father 
regarded  the  son's  work. 

''You  should  feel  pretty  proud  of  your  son,"  remarked 
Bok. 

*'A  good  sort,"  was  the  simple  reply. 

"I  mean,  rather,  of  his  work.  How  does  that  strike 
you?"  asked  Bok. 

"Which  work?" 


GOING  HOME  WITH  KIPLING  313 

"His  work  as  a  whole,"  explained  Bok. 

"Creditable,"  was  the  succinct  answer. 

"No  more  than  that?"  asked  Bok. 

"Can  there  be  more?"  came  from  the  father. 

"Well,"  said  Bok,  "the  judgment  seems  a  little  tame 
as  applied  to  one  who  is  generally  regarded  as  a  genius." 

"By  whom?" 

"The  critics,  for  instance,"  replied  Bok. 

"There  are  no  such,"  came  the  answer. 

"No  such  what,  Mr.  Kipling?"  asked  Bok. 

"Critics." 

"No  critics?" 

"No,"  and  for  the  first  time  the  pipe  was  removed 
for  a  moment.  "A  critic  is  one  who  only  exists  as 
such  in  his  own  imagination." 

"But  surely  you  must  consider  that  Rud  has  done 
some  great  work?"  persisted  Bok. 

"Creditable,"  came  once  more. 

"You  think  him  capable  of  great  work,  do  you  not?" 
asked  Bok.    For  a  moment  there  was  silence.    Then: 

"He  has  a  certain  grasp  of  the  human  instinct.  That, 
some  day,  I  think,  will  lead  him  to  write  a  great  work." 

There  was  the  secret:  the  constant  holding  up  to  the 
son,  apparently,  of  something  still  to  be  accomplished; 
of  a  goal  to  be  reached;  of  a  higher  standard  to  be  at- 
tained. Rudyard  Kipling  was  never  in  danger  of  un- 
intelligent laudation  from  his  safest  and  most  intelligent 
reader. 

During  the  years  which  intervened  until  his  passing 
away,  Bok  sought  to  keep  in  touch  with  Father  Kip- 
ling, and  received  the  most  wonderful  letters  from  him. 


314  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

One  day  he  enclosed  in  a  letter  a  drawing  which  he  had 
made  showing  Sakia  Muni  sitting  under  the  bo-tree 
with  two  of  his  disciples,  a  young  man  and  a  young 
woman,  gathered  at  his  feet.  It  was  a  piece  of  exquisite 
drawing.  "I  like  to  think  of  you  and  your  work  in  this 
way,"  wrote  Mr.  Kipling,  ''and  so  I  sketched  it  for  you." 
Bok  had  the  sketch  enlarged,  engaged  John  La  Farge  to 
translate  it  into  glass,  and  inserted  it  in  a  window  in 
the  living-room  of  his  home  at  Merion. 

After  Father  Kipling  had  passed  away,  the  express 
brought  to  Bok  one  day  a  beautiful  plaque  of  red  clay, 
showing  the  elephant's  head,  the  lotus,  and  the  swastika, 
which  the  father  had  made  for  the  son.  It  was  the 
original  model  of  the  insignia  which,  as  a  watermark, 
is  used  in  the  pages  of  KipHng's  books  and  on  the  cover 
of  the  subscription  edition. 

"I  am  sending  with  this  for  your  acceptance,"  wrote 
Kipling  to  Bok,  "as  some  little  memory  of  my  father  to 
whom  you  were  so  kind,  the  original  of  one  of  the  plaques 
that  he  used  to  make  for  me.  I  thought  it  being  the 
swastika  would  be  appropriate  for  your  swastika.  May 
it  bring  you  even  more  good  fortune." 

To  those  who  knew  Lockwood  Kipling,  it  is  easier  to 
understand  the  genius  and  the  kindUness  of  the  son. 
For  the  sake  of  the  public's  knowledge,  it  is  a  distinct 
loss  that  there  is  not  a  better  understanding  of  the  real 
sweetness  of  character  of  the  son.  The  public's  only 
idea  of  the  great  writer  is  naturally  one  derived  from 
writers  who  do  not  understand  him,  or  from  reporters 
whom  he  refused  to  see,  while  Kipling's  own  slogan  is 
expressed  in  his  own  words:  "I  have  always  managed 


THE  MEDALLION'.  DESIGNED  BY  MR.  JOHN  LOCKWOOD  KIPLING  FOR 

HIS  SON,  RUDY.\RI)  KIPLIN(;.  .AND  PRESENTED  BY  THE 

L.ATTER  TO  EDW.ARD   BOK 

It  is  modelled  in  red  clay 


GOING  HOME   WITH  KIPLING  315 


H- 


2/.  ^^  cfl.,1^  A«-«:/  *„^^  /t,^  f/\^tsioxjuc  lyt^*^ 


2/-  ^rt^   <i»-^     MA^^A/^   ~Dtcu^r-./M,  t^*^  AiUdJtSi^, 

/fKO.     Cht^tJ-     Z^ma.    2ur&   'UH^Co-*Ja%i  ^^tM^A  ^4.  f*-**'*-! 
2/-  J^   <i*>t.   X/i»,wd   &■  >tw»^    /%i.      Ci*.^  %n<'/*  tJUti^ 

Ot-  <v*<^<    ^  A/w^  Wi-'<-e  «<„i^  tj^^^ji^.^^-'SurK^, 

Ako.  sc^  ^^  cCjje^i/.^  tC^uJ^.^n^l^^f 

A>u^    ^'**-/  <»-»-»X  f^Cc/  *  ya«rv  ;^U»»*    'javuy     ^-■^4>»«/»€.«»<^^ 


A-.*  ^•<««''  ^tf^  »w  /ti  52)  ''~^iU>^*^, 


3i6  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

to  keep  clear  of  'personal'  things  as  much  as  possi- 
ble." 

It  was  on  Bok's  fiftieth  birthday  that  Kipling  sent 
him  a  copy  of  "  If."  Bok  had  greatly  admired  this  poem, 
but  knowing  Kipling's  distaste  for  writing  out  his  own 
work,  he  had  resisted  the  strong  desire  to  ask  him  for  a 
copy  of  it.  It  is  significant  of  the  author's  remarkable 
memory  that  he  wrote  it,  as  he  said,  "from  memory," 
years  after  its  publication,  and  yet  a  comparison  of  the 
copy  with  the  printed  form,  corrected  by  Kipling,  fails 
to  discover  the  difference  of  a  single  word. 

The  lecture  bureaus  now  desired  that  Edward  Bok 
should  go  on  the  platform.  Bok  had  never  appeared 
in  the  role  of  a  lecturer,  but  he  reasoned  that  through 
the  medium  of  the  rostrum  he  might  come  in  closer 
contact  with  the  American  public,  meet  his  readers  per- 
sonally, and  secure  some  first-hand  constructive  criti- 
cism of  his  work.  This  last  he  was  always  encouraging. 
It  was  a  naive  conception  of  a  lecture  tour,  but  Bok 
believed  it  and  he  contracted  for  a  tour  beginning  at 
Richmond,  Virginia,  and  continuing  through  the  South 
and  Southwest  as  far  as  Saint  Joseph,  Missouri,  and 
then  back  home  by  way  of  the  Middle  West. 

Large  audiences  greeted  him  wherever  he  went,  but 
he  had  not  gone  far  on  his  tour  when  he  realized  that 
he  was  not  getting  what  he  thought  he  would.  There 
was  much  entertaining  and  lionizing,  but  nothing  to 
help  him  in  his  work  by  pointing  out  to  him  where  he 
could  better  it.  He  shrank  from  the  pitiless  publicity 
that  was  inevitable;  he  became  more  and  more  self- 


AS  A  LECTURER  317 

conscious  when  during  the  first  five  minutes  on  the 
stage  he  felt  the  hundreds  of  opera-classes  levelled  at 
him,  and  he  and  Mrs.  Bok,  who  accompanied  him,  had 
not  a  moment  to  themselves  from  early  morning  to 
midnight.  Yet  his  large  correspondence  was  following 
him  from  the  office,  and  the  inevitable  invitations  in 
each  city  had  at  least  to  be  acknowledged.  Bok  real- 
ized he  had  miscalculated  the  benefits  of  a  lecture  tour 
to  his  work,  and  began  hopefully  to  wish  for  the  ending 
of  the  circuit. 

One  afternoon  as  he  was  returning  with  his  man- 
ager from  a  large  reception,  the  "impresario"  said  to 
him:  ''I  don't  like  these  receptions.  They  hurt  the 
house." 

''The  house?"  echoed  Bok. 

''Yes,  the  attendance." 

"But  you  told  me  the  house  for  this  evening  was  sold 
out?"  said  the  lecturer. 

"That  is  true  enough.  House,  and  even  the  stage. 
Not  a  seat  unsold.  But  hundreds  just  come  to  see  you 
and  not  to  hear  your  lecture,  and  this  exposure  of  a  lec- 
turer at  so  crowded  a  reception  as  this,  before  the  talk, 
satisfies  the  people  without  their  buying  a  ticket.  My 
rule  is  that  a  lecturer  should  not  be  seen  in  public  be- 
fore his  lecture,  and  I  wish  you  would  let  me  enforce  the 
rule  with  you.  It  wears  you  out,  anyway,  and  no  re- 
ceptions until  afterward  will  give  you  more  time  for 
yourself  and  save  your  vitality  for  the  talk." 

Bok  was  entirely  acquiescent.  He  had  no  personal 
taste  for  the  continued  round  of  functions,  but  he  had 
accepted  it  as  part  of  the  game. 


3i8   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

The  idea  from  this  talk  that  impressed  Bok,  however, 
with  particular  force,  was  that  the  people  who  crowded 
his  houses  came  to  see  him  and  not  to  hear  his  lecture. 
Personal  curiosity,  in  other  words.  This  was  a  new 
thought.  He  had  been  too  busy  to  think  of  his  per- 
sonality; now  he  realized  a  different  angle  to  the  situ- 
ation. And,  much  to  his  manager's  astonishment,  two 
days  afterwards  Bok  refused  to  sign  an  agreement  for 
another  tour  later  in  the  year.  He  had  had  enough  of 
exhibiting  himself  as  a  curiosity.  He  continued  his 
tour;  but  before  its  conclusion  fell  ill — a  misfortune  with 
a  pleasant  side  to  it,  for  three  of  his  engagements  had 
to  be  cancelled. 

The  Saint  Joseph  engagement  could  not  be  cancelled. 
The  house  had  been  oversold;  it  was  for  the  benefit  of  a 
local  charity  which  besought  Bok  by  wire  after  wire  to 
keep  a  postponed  date.  He  agreed,  and  he  went.  He 
realized  that  he  was  not  well,  but  he  did  not  realize  the 
extent  of  his  mental  and  physical  exhaustion  until  he 
came  out  on  the  platform  and  faced  the  crowded  audi- 
torium. Barely  sufficient  space  had  been  left  for  him 
and  for  the  speaker's  desk;  the  people  on  the  stage  were 
close  to  him,  and  he  felt  distinctly  uncomfortable. 

Then,  to  his  consternation,  it  suddenly  dawned  upon 
him  that  his  tired  mind  had  played  a  serious  trick  on 
him.  He  did  not  remember  a  fine  of  his  lecture;  he 
could  not  even  recall  how  it  began !  He  arose,  after  his 
introduction,  in  a  bath  of  cold  perspiration.  The  ap- 
plause gave  him  a  moment  to  recover  himself,  but  not  a 
word  came  to  his  mind.  He  sparred  for  time  by  some 
informal  prefatory  remarks    expressing    regret    at   his 


AS  A  LECTURER  319 

illness  and  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  disappoint 
his  audience  a  few  days  before,  and  then  he  stood  help- 
less !  In  sheer  desperation  he  looked  at  Mrs.  Bok  sitting 
in  the  stage  box,  who,  divining  her  husband's  plight, 
motioned  to  the  inside  pocket  of  his  coat.  He  put  his 
hand  there  and  pulled  out  a  copy  of  his  lecture  which 
she  had  placed  there !  The  whole  tragic  comedy  had 
happened  so  quickly  that  the  audience  was  absolutely 
unaware  of  what  had  occurred,  and  Bok  went  on  and 
practically  read  his  lecture.  But  it  was  not  a  successful 
evening  for  his  audience  or  for  himself,  and  the  one  was 
doubtless  as  glad  when  it  was  over  as  the  other. 

When  he  reached  home,  he  was  convinced  that  he  had 
had  enough  of  lecturing !  He  had  to  make  a  second  short 
tour,  however,  for  which  he  had  contracted  with  an- 
other manager  before  embarking  on  the  first.  This 
tour  took  him  to  IndianapoHs,  and  after  the  lecture, 
James  Whitcomb  Riley  gave  him  a  supper.  There  were 
some  thirty  men  in  the  party;  the  affair  was  an  exceed- 
ingly happy  one;  the  happiest  that  Bok  had  attended. 
He  said  this  to  Riley  on  the  way  to  the  hotel. 

"Usually,"  said  Bok,  "men,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
hold  aloof  from  me  on  these  lecture  tours.  They  stand 
at  a  distance  and  eye  me,  and  I  see  wonder  on  their 
faces  rather  than  a  desire  to  mix." 

"You've  noticed  that,  then?"  smilingly  asked  the 
poet. 

"Yes,  and  I  can't  quite  get  it.  At  home,  my  friends 
are  men.     Why  should  it  be  different  in  other  cities?" 

"I'll  tell  you,"  said  Riley.  "Five  or  six  of  the  men 
you  met  to-night  were  loath  to  come.     When  I  pinned 


320  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

them  down  to  their  reason,  it  was  as  I  thought:  they 
regard  you  as  an  efifeminate  being,  a  sissy." 

"Good  heavens!"  interrupted  Bok. 

"Fact,"  said  Riley,  "and  you  can't  wonder  at  it 
nor  blame  them.  You  have  been  most  industriously 
paragraphed,  in  countless  jests,  about  your  penchant 
for  pink  teas,  your  expert  knowledge  of  tatting,  crochet- 
ing, and  all  that  sort  of  stuff.  Look  what  Eugene  Field 
has  done  in  that  direction.  These  paragraphs  have, 
doubtless,  been  good  advertising  for  your  magazine, 
and,  in  a  way,  for  you.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
have  given  a  false  impression  of  you.  Men  have  taken 
these  paragraphs  seriously  and  they  think  of  you  as  the 
man  pictured  in  them.  It's  a  fact;  I  know.  It's  all 
right  after  they  meet  you  and  get  your  measure.  The 
joke  then  is  on  them.  Four  of  the  men  I  fairly  dragged 
to  the  dinner  this  evening  said  this  to  me  just  before  I 
left.  That  is  one  reason  why  I  advise  you  to  keep  on 
lecturing.  Get  around  and  show  yourself,  and  correct 
this  universal  impression.  Not  that  you  can't  stand 
what  men  think  of  you,  but  it's  unpleasant." 

It  was  unpleasant,  but  Bok  decided  that  the  solu- 
tion as  found  in  lecturing  was  worse  than  the  miscon- 
ception.    From  that  day  to  this  he  never  lectured  again. 

But  the  public  conception  of  himself,  especially  that 
of  men,  awakened  his  interest  and  amusement.  Some 
of  his  friends  on  the  press  were  still  busy  with  their  para- 
graphs, and  he  promptly  called  a  halt  and  asked  them  to 
desist.  "Enough  was  as  good  as  a  feast,"  he  told  them, 
and  explained  why. 

One  day  Bok  got  a  distinctly  amusing  line  on  himself 


AS  A  LECTURER  321 

from  a  chance  stranger.  He  was  riding  from  Washing- 
ton to  Philadelphia  in  the  smoking  compartment, 
when  the  newsboy  stuck  his  head  in  the  door  and  yelled : 
"  Ladies^  Home  Journal,  out  to-day."  He  had  heard  this 
many  times  before;  but  on  this  particular  day,  upon 
hearing  the  title  of  his  own  magazine  yelled  almost  in 
his  ears,  he  gave  an  involuntary  start. 

Opposite  to  him  sat  a  most  companionable  young  fel- 
low, who,  noticing  Bok's  start,  leaned  over  and  with  a 
smile  said:  "I  know,  I  know  just  how  you  feel.  That's 
the  way  I  feel  whenever  I  hear  the  name  of  that  damned 
magazine.  Here,  boy,"  he  called  to  the  retreating 
magazine-carrier,  "give  me  a  copy  of  that  Ladies^  Home 
Disturber:  I  might  as  well  buy  it  here  as  in  the  station." 

Then  to  Bok:  "Honest,  if  I  don't  bring  home  that 
sheet  on  the  day  it  is  out,  the  wife  is  in  a  funk.  She 
runs  her  home  by  it  literally.     Same  with  you?" 

"The  same,"  answered  Bok.  "As  a  matter  of  fact, 
in  our  family,  we  live  by  it,  on  it,  and  from  it." 

Bok's  neighbor,  of  course,  couldn't  get  the  real  point 
of  this,  but  he  thought  he  had  it. 

"Exactly,"  he  replied.  "So  do  we.  That  fellow 
Bok  certainly  has  the  women  buffaloed  for  good.  Ever 
see  him?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  answered  Bok. 

"Live  in  Philadelphia?" 

"Yes." 

"There's  where  the  thing  is  published,  all  right. 
What  does  Bok  look  Hke?" 

"Oh,"  answered  Bok  carelessly,  "just  like,  well,  like 
all  of  us.     In  fact,  he  looks  something  Hke  me." 


322   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

"  Does  he,  now  ?  "  echoed  the  man.  "  Shouldn't  think 
it  would  make  you  very  proud ! " 

And,  the  train  pulling  in  at  Baltimore,  Bok's  genial 
neighbor  sent  him  a  hearty  good-bye  and  ran  out  with 
the  much-maligned  magazine  under  his  arm ! 

He  had  an  occasion  or  two  now  to  find  out  what  women 
thought  of  him ! 

He  was  leaving  the  publication  building  one  evening 
after  office  hours  when  just  as  he  opened  the  front  door, 
a  woman  approached.  Bok  explained  that  the  building 
was  closed. 

"Well,  I  am  sorry,"  said  the  woman  in  a  dejected 
tone,  "for  I  don't  think  I  can  manage  to  come  again." 

"Is  there  anything  I  can  do?"  asked  Bok.  "I  am 
employed  here." 

"No-o,"  said  the  woman.  "I  came  to  see  Mr.  Curtis 
on  a  personal  matter." 

"I  shall  see  him  this  evening,"  suggested  Bok,  "and 
can  give  him  a  message  for  you  if  you  like." 

"Well,  I  don't  know  if  you  can.  I  came  to  com- 
plain to  him  about  Mr.  Bok,"  announced  the  woman. 

"Oh,  well,"  answered  Bok,  with  a  slight  start  at  the 
matter-of-fact  announcement,  "that  is  serious;  quite 
serious.  If  you  will  explain  your  complaint,  I  will 
surely  see  that  it  gets  to  Mr.  Curtis." 

Bok's  interest  grew. 

"Well,  you  see,"  said  the  woman,  "it  is  this  way.  I 
live  in  a  three-family  flat.  Here  is  my  name  and  card," 
and  a  card  came  out  of  a  bag.  "I  subscribe  to  The 
Ladies'  Home  Journal.  It  is  delivered  at  my  house  each 
month  by  Mr.  Bok.     Now  I  have  told  that  man  three 


AS  A  LECTURER  323 

times  over  that  when  he  delivers  the  magazine,  he 
must  ring  the  bell  twice.  But  he  just  persists  in  ring- 
ing once  and  then  that  cat  who  lives  on  the  first  floor 
gets  my  magazine,  reads  it,  and  keeps  it  sometimes 
for  three  days  before  I  get  it !  Now,  I  want  Mr.  Curtis 
to  tell  Mr.  Bok  that  he  must  do  as  I  ask  and  ring  the  bell 
twice.  Can  you  give  him  that  message  for  me  ?  There's 
no  use  talking  to  Mr.  Bok;  I've  done  that,  as  I  say." 

And  Bok  solemnly  assured  his  subscriber  that  he 
would ! 

Bok's  secretary  told  him  one  day  that  there  was  in 
the  outer  office  the  most  irate  woman  he  had  ever  tried 
to  handle ;  that  he  had  tried  for  half  an  hour  to  appease 
her,  but  it  was  of  no  use.  She  threatened  to  remain 
until  Bok  admitted  her,  and  see  him  she  would,  and  tell 
him  exactly  what  she  thought  of  him.  The  secretary 
looked  as  if  he  had  been  through  a  struggle.  "It's 
hopeless,"  he  said.     "Will  you  see  her?" 

"Certainly,"  said  Bok.     "Show  her  in." 

The  moment  the  woman  came  in,  she  began  a  perfect 
torrent  of  abuse.  Bok  could  not  piece  out,  try  as  he 
might,  what  it  was  all  about.  But  he  did  gather  from 
the  explosion  that  the  woman  considered  him  a  hypo- 
crite who  wrote  one  thing  and  did  another;  that  he  was 
really  a  thief,  stealing  a  woman's  money,  and  so  forth. 
There  was  no  chance  of  a  word  for  fully  fifteen  minutes 
and  then,  when  she  was  almost  breathless,  Bok  managed 
to  ask  if  his  caller  would  kindly  tell  him  just  what  he 
had  done. 

Another  torrent  of  incoherent  abuse  came  forth, 
but  after  a  while  it  became  apparent  that  the  woman's 


324   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

complaint  was  that  she  had  sent  a  dollar  for  a  subscrip- 
tion to  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal;  had  never  had  a 
copy  of  the  magazine,  had  complained,  and  been  told 
there  was  no  record  of  the  money  being  received.  And 
as  she  had  sent  her  subscription  to  Bok  personally,  he 
had  purloined  the  dollar ! 

It  was  fully  half  an  hour  before  Bok  could  explain 
to  the  irate  woman  that  he  never  remembered  receiving 
a  letter  from  her;  that  subscriptions,  even  when  per- 
sonally addressed  to  him,  did  not  come  to  his  desk,  etc. ; 
that  if  she  would  leave  her  name  and  address  he  would 
have  the  matter  investigated.  Absolutely  unconvinced 
that  anything  would  be  done,  and  unaltered  in  her 
opinion  about  Bok,  the  woman  finally  left. 

Two  days  later  a  card  was  handed  in  to  the  editor 
with  a  note  asking  him  to  see  for  a  moment  the  hus- 
band of  his  irate  caller.  When  the  man  came  in, 
he  looked  sheepish  and  amused  in  turn,  and  finally 
said: 

"I  hardly  know  what  to  say,  because  I  don't  know 
what  my  wife  said  to  you.  But  if  what  she  said  to  me 
is  any  index  of  her  talk  with  you,  I  want  to  apologize 
for  her  most  profoundly.  She  isn't  well,  and  we  shall 
both  have  to  let  it  go  at  that.  As  for  her  subscription, 
you,  of  course,  never  received  it,  for,  with  difficulty, 
I  finally  extracted  the  fact  from  her  that  she  pinned  a 
dollar  bill  to  a  postal  card  and  dropped  it  in  a  street 
postal  box.  And  she  doesn't  yet  see  that  she  has  done 
anything  extraordinary,  or  that  she  had  a  faith  in  Uncle 
Sam  that  I  call  subHme." 

The  Journal   had  been  calling   the  attention  of  its 


AS  A  LECTURER  325 

readers  to  the  defacement  of  the  landscape  by  billboard 
advertisers.  One  day  on  his  way  to  New  York  he 
found  himself  sitting  in  a  sleeping-car  section  opposite 
a  woman  and  her  daughter. 

The  mother  was  looking  at  the  landscape  when  sud- 
denly she  commented: 

"There  are  some  of  those  ugly  advertising  signs  that 
Mr.  Bok  says  are  such  a  defacement  to  the  landscape. 
I  never  noticed  them  before,  but  he  is  right,  and  I  am 
going  to  write  and  tell  him  so." 

"Oh,  mamma,  don't,"  said  the  girl.  "That  man  is 
pampered  enough  by  women.  Don't  make  him  worse. 
Ethel  says  he  is  now  the  vainest  man  in  America." 

Bok's  eyes  must  have  twinkled,  and  just  then  the 
mother  looked  at  him,  caught  his  eye;  she  gave  a  little 
gasp,  and  Bok  saw  that  she  had  telepathically  discov- 
ered him ! 

He  smiled,  raised  his  hat,  presented  his  card  to  the 
mother,  and  said:  "Excuse  me,  but  I  do  want  to  defend 
myself  from  that  last  statement,  if  I  may.  I  couldn't 
help  overhearing  it." 

The  mother,  a  woman  of  the  world,  read  the  name  on 
the  card  quickly  and  smiled,  but  the  daughter's  face 
was  a  study  as  she  leaned  over  and  glanced  at  the  card. 
She  turned  scarlet  and  then  white. 

"Now,  do  tell  me,"  asked  Bok  of  the  daughter,  "who 
'Ethel'  is,  so  that  I  may  try  at  least  to  prove  that  I  am 
not  what  she  thinks." 

The  daughter  was  completely  flustered.  For  the 
rest  of  the  journey,  however,  the  talk  was  informal; 
the  girl  became  more  at  ease,  and  Bok  ended  by  dining 


326  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

with  the  mother  and  daughter  at  their  hotel  that  even- 
ing. 

But  he  never  found  out  "Ethel's"  other  name! 

There  were  curiously  amusing  sides  to  a  man's  edi- 
torship of  a  woman's  magazine ! 


CHAPTER  XXrX 

AN  EXCURSION  INTO  THE  FEMININE  NATURE 

The  strangling  hold  which  the  Paris  couturiers  had 
secured  on  the  American  woman  in  their  absolute  dicta- 
tion as  to  her  fashions  in  dress,  had  interested  Edward 
Bok  for  some  time.  As  he  studied  the  question,  he  was 
constantly  amazed  at  the  audacity  with  which  these 
French  dressmakers  and  milliners,  often  themselves  of 
little  taste  and  scant  morals,  cracked  the  whip,  and 
the  docility  with  which  the  American  woman  blindly 
and  unintelligently  danced  to  their  measure.  The 
deeper  he  went  into  the  matter,  too,  the  more  deceit 
and  misrepresentation  did  he  find  in  the  situation.  It 
was  inconceivable  that  the  American  woman  should 
submit  to  what  was  being  imposed  upon  her  if  she  knew 
the  facts.  He  determined  that  she  should.  The  proc- 
ess of  Americanization  going  on  within  him  decided 
him  to  expose  the  Paris  conditions  and  advocate  and 
present  American-designed  fashions  for  women. 

The  Journal  engaged  the  best-informed  woman  in  Paris 
frankly  to  lay  open  the  situation  to  the  American  women ; 
she  proved  that  the  designs  sent  over  by  the  so-called 
Paris  arbiters  of  fashion  were  never  worn  by  the  French- 
woman of  birth  and  good  taste;  that  they  were  especially 
designed  and  specifically  intended  for  "the  bizarre 
American  trade,"  as  one  polite  Frenchman  called  it; 
and  that   the  only  women  in   Paris  who  wore   these 

327 


328  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

grotesque  and  often  immoderate  styles  were  of  the 
demimonde. 

This  article  was  the  opening  gun  of  the  campaign, 
and  this  was  quickly  followed  by  a  second  equally  con- 
vincing— ^both  articles  being  written  from  the  inside  of 
the  gilded  circles  of  the  couturiers'  shops.  Madame 
Sarah  Bernhardt  was  visiting  the  United  States  at  the 
time,  and  Bok  induced  the  great  actress  to  verify  the 
statements  printed.  She  went  farther  and  expressed 
amazement  at  the  readiness  with  which  the  American 
woman  had  been  duped;  and  indicated  her  horror  on 
seeing  American  women  of  refined  sensibilities  and  posi- 
tion dressed  in  the  gowns  of  the  declasse  street-women  of 
Paris.  The  somewhat  sensational  nature  of  the  articles 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  American  newspapers, 
which  copied  and  commented  on  them;  the  gist  of  them 
was  cabled  over  to  Paris,  and,  of  course,  the  Paris 
couturiers  denied  the  charges.  But  their  denials  were 
in  general  terms;  and  no  convincing  proof  of  the  falsity 
of  the  charges  was  furnished.  The  French  couturier 
simply  resorted  to  a  shrug  of  the  shoulder  and  a 
laugh,  implying  that  the  accusations  were  beneath  his 
notice. 

Bok  now  followed  the  French  models  of  dresses  and 
miUinery  to  the  United  States,  and  soon  found  that  for 
every  genuine  Parisian  model  sold  in  the  large  cities  at 
least  ten  were  copies,  made  in  New  York  shops,  but  with 
the  labels  of  the  French  dressmakers  and  milliners  sewed 
on  them.  He  followed  the  labels  to  their  source,  and 
discovered  a  firm  one  of  whose  specialties  was  the  making 
of  these  labels  bearing  the  names  of  the  leading  French 


EXCURSION  INTO  THE  FEMININE  NATURE    329 

designers.  They  were  manufactured  by  the  gross,  and 
sold  in  bundles  to  the  retailers.  Bok  secured  a  list  of 
the  buyers  of  these  labels  and  found  that  they  represented 
some  of  the  leading  merchants  throughout  the  country. 
All  these  facts  he  published.  The  retailers  now  sprang 
up  in  arms  and  denied  the  charges,  but  again  the  denials 
were  in  general  terms.  Bok  had  the  facts  and  they  knew 
it.  These  facts  were  too  specific  and  too  convincing  to 
be  controverted. 

The  editor  had  now  presented  a  complete  case  be- 
fore the  women  of  America  as  to  the  character  of  the 
Paris-designed  fashions  and  the  manner  in  which  women 
were  being  hoodwinked  in  buying  imitations. 

Meanwhile,  he  had  engaged  the  most  expert  designers 
in  the  world  of  women's  dress  and  commissioned  them 
to  create  American  designs.  He  sent  one  of  his  editors 
to  the  West  to  get  first-hand  motifs  from  Indian  cos- 
tumes and  adapt  them  as  decorative  themes  for  dress 
embroideries.  Three  designers  searched  the  Metro- 
politan Museum  for  new  and  artistic  ideas,  and  he  in- 
duced his  company  to  install  a  battery  of  four-color 
presses  in  order  that  the  designs  might  be  given  in  all 
the  beauty  of  their  original  colors.  For  months  de- 
signers and  artists  worked;  he  had  the  designs  passed 
upon  by  a  board  of  judges  composed  of  New  York 
women  who  knew  good  clothes,  and  then  he  began  their 
publication. 

The  editor  of  The  New  York  Times  asked  Bok  to  con- 
duct for  that  newspaper  a  prize  contest  for  the  best 
American-designed  dresses  and  hats,  and  edit  a  special 
supplement  presenting  them  in  full  colors,  the  prizes 


330  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

to  be  awarded  by  a  jury  of  six  of  the  leading  New  York 
women  best  versed  in  matters  of  dress.  Hundreds  of 
designs  were  submitted,  the  best  were  selected,  and  the 
supplement  issued  under  the  most  successful  auspices. 

In  his  own  magazine,  Bok  published  pages  of  Ameri- 
can-designed fashions:  their  presence  in  the  magazine 
was  advertised  far  and  wide;  conventions  of  dressmakers 
were  called  to  consider  the  salability  of  domestic-de- 
signed fashions;  and  a  campaign  with  the  slogan  ''Amer- 
ican Fashions  for  American  Women"  was  soon  in  full 
swing. 

But  there  it  ended.  The  women  looked  the  designs 
over  with  interest,  as  they  did  all  designs  of  new  clothes, 
and  paid  no  further  attention  to  them.  The  very  fact 
that  they  were  of  American  design  prejudiced  the  wo- 
men against  them.  America  never  had  designed  good 
clothes,  they  argued:  she  never  would.  Argument 
availed  naught.  The  Paris  germ  was  deep-rooted  in  the 
feminine  mind  of  America:  the  women  acknowledged 
that  they  were,  perhaps,  being  hoodwinked  by  spurious 
French  dresses  and  hats;  that  the  case  presented  by 
Bok  seemed  convincing  enough,  but  the  temptation  to 
throw  a  coat  over  a  sofa  or  a  chair  to  expose  a  Parisian 
label  to  the  eyes  of  some  other  woman  was  too  great; 
there  was  always  a  gambhng  chance  that  her  particular 
gown,  coat,  or  hat  was  an  actual  Paris  creation. 

Bok  called  upon  the  American  woman  to  come  out 
from  under  the  yoke  of  the  French  couturiers,  show  her 
patriotism,  and  encourage  American  design.  But  it 
was  of  no  use.  He  talked  with  women  on  every  hand; 
his  mail  was  full  of  letters  commending  him  for  his 


EXCURSION   INTO  THE  FEMININE  NATURE    331 

stand;  but  as  for  actual  results,  there  were  none.  One 
of  his  most  intelligent  woman-friends  finally  summed 
up  the  situation  for  him: 

"You  can  rail  against  the  Paris  domination  all  you 
like;  you  can  expose  it  for  the  fraud  that  it  is,  and  we 
know  that  it  is;  but  it  is  all  to  no  purpose,  take  my 
word.  When  it  comes  to  the  question  of  her  personal 
adornment,  a  woman  employs  no  reason;  she  knows 
no  logic.  She  knows  that  the  adornment  of  her  body 
is  all  that  she  has  to  match  the  other  woman  and  outdo 
her,  and  to  attract  the  male,  and  nothing  that  you  can 
say  will  influence  her  a  particle.  I  know  this  aU  seems 
incomprehensible  to  you  as  a  man,  but  that  is  the 
feminine  nature.  You  are  trying  to  fight  something  that 
is  unfightable." 

"Has  the  American  woman  no  instinct  of  patriotism, 
then?"  asked  Bok. 

"Not  the  least,"  was  the  answer,  "when  it  comes  to  her 
adornment.  What  Paris  says,  she  will  do,  blindly 
and  unintelligently  if  you  will,  but  she  will  do  it.  She 
will  sacrifice  her  patriotism;  she  will  even  justify  a 
possible  disregard  of  the  decencies.  Look  at  the  present 
Parisian  styles.  They  are  absolutely  indecent.  Women 
know  it,  but  they  follow  them  just  the  same,  and  they 
will.  It  is  all  very  unpleasant  to  say  this,  but  it  is  the 
truth  and  you  will  find  it  out.  Your  effort,  fine  as  it  is, 
will  bear  no  fruit." 

Wherever  Bok  went,  women  upon  whose  judgment 
he  felt  he  could  rely,  told  him,  in  effect,  the  same  thing. 
They  were  all  regretful,  in  some  cases  ashamed  of  their 
sex,  universally  apologetic;    but  one  and  all  declared 


332   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

that  such  is  "the  feminine  nature,"  and  Bok  would 
only  have  his  trouble  for  nothing. 

And  so  it  proved.  For  a  period,  the  retail  shops  were 
more  careful  in  the  number  of  genuine  French  models 
of  gowns  and  hats  which  they  exhibited,  and  the  label 
firm  confessed  that  its  trade  had  fallen  off.  But  this 
was  only  temporary.  Within  a  year  after  The  Journal 
stopped  the  campaign,  baffled  and  beaten,  the  trade 
in  French  labels  was  greater  than  ever,  hundreds  of 
French  models  were  sold  that  had  never  crossed  the 
ocean,  the  American  woman  was  being  hoodwinked  on 
every  hand,  and  the  reign  of  the  French  couturier  was 
once  more  supreme. 

There  was  no  disguising  the  fact  that  the  case  was 
hopeless,  and  Bok  recognized  and  accepted  the  inevitable. 
He  had,  at  least,  the  satisfaction  of  having  made  an 
intelHgent  effort  to  awaken  the  American  woman  to 
her  unintelligent  submission.  But  she  refused  to  be 
awakened.  She  preferred  to  be  a  tool:  to  be  made  a 
fool  of. 

Bok's  probe  into  the  feminine  nature  had  been  keenly 
disappointing.  He  had  earnestly  tried  to  serve  the 
American  woman,  and  he  had  failed.  But  he  was 
destined  to  receive  a  still  greater  and  deeper  disappoint- 
ment on  his  next  excursion  into  the  feminine  nature, 
although,  this  time,  he  was  to  win. 

During  his  investigations  into  women's  fashions,  he 
had  unearthed  the  origin  of  the  fashionable  aigrette, 
the  most  desired  of  all  the  feathered  possessions  of 
womankind.  He  had  been  told  of  the  cruel  torture  of 
the  mother-heron,  who  produced  the  beautiful  aigrette 


EXCURSION  INTO  THE  FEMININE  NATURE    3;^^ 

only  in  her  period  of  maternity  and  who  was  cruelly 
slaughtered,  usually  left  to  die  slowly  rather  than  killed, 
leaving  her  whole  nest  of  baby-birds  to  starve  while 
they  awaited  the  return  of  the  mother-bird. 

Bok  was  shown  the  most  heart-rending  photographs 
portraying  the  butchery  of  the  mother  and  the  starva- 
tion of  her  Httle  ones.  He  collected  all  the  photographs 
that  he  could  secure,  had  the  most  graphic  text  written 
to  them,  and  began  their  pubhcation.  He  felt  certain 
that  the  mere  publication  of  the  frightfully  convincing 
photographs  would  be  enough  to  arouse  the  mother- 
instinct  in  every  woman  and  stop  the  wearing  of  the  so- 
highly  prized  feather.  But  for  the  second  time  in  his 
attempt  to  reform  the  feminine  nature  he  reckoned 
beside  the  mark. 

He  pubHshed  a  succession  of  pages  showing  the  fright- 
ful cost  at  which  the  aigrette  was  secured.  There  was 
no  challenging  the  actual  facts  as  shown  by  the  photo- 
graphic lens:  the  slaughter  of  the  mother-bird,  and  the 
starving  baby-birds;  and  the  importers  of  the  feather 
wisely  remained  quiet,  not  attempting  to  answer  Bok's 
accusations.  Letters  poured  in  upon  the  editor  from 
Audubon  Society  workers;  from  lovers  of  birds,  and 
from  women  filled  with  the  humanitarian  instinct. 
But  Bok  knew  that  the  answer  was  not  with  those  few: 
the  solution  lay  with  the  larger  circle  of  American  wo- 
manhood from  which  he  did  not  hear. 

He  waited  for  results.  They  came.  But  they  were 
not  those  for  which  he  had  striven.  After  four  months  of 
his  campaign,  he  learned  from  the  inside  of  the  importing- 
houses  which  dealt  in  the  largest  stocks  of  aigrettes  in  the 


334  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

United  States  that  the  demand  for  the  feather  had  more 
than  quadrupled!  Bok  was  dumbfounded!  He  made 
inquiries  in  certain  channels  from  which  he  knew  he  could 
secure  the  most  reUable  information,  and  after  all  the 
importers  had  been  interviewed,  the  conviction  was  un- 
escapable  that  just  in  proportion  as  Bok  had  dwelt  upon 
the  desirability  of  the  aigrette  as  the  hallmark  of  wealth 
and  fashion,  upon  its  expense,  and  the  fact  that  women 
regarded  it  as  the  last  word  in  feminine  adornment,  he 
had  by  so  much  made  these  facts  famiUar  to  thousands 
of  women  who  had  never  before  known  of  them,  and  had 
created  the  desire  to  own  one  of  the  precious  feathers. 

Bok  could  not  and  would  not  accept  these  conclusions. 
It  seemed  to  him  incredible  that  women  would  go  so  far 
as  this  in  the  question  of  personal  adornment.  He 
caused  the  increased  sales  to  be  traced  from  wholesaler 
to  retailer,  and  from  retailer  to  customer,  and  was 
amazed  at  the  character  and  standing  of  the  latter.  He 
had  a  number  of  those  buyers  who  lived  in  adjacent  cities, 
privately  approached  and  interviewed,  and  ascertained 
that,  save  in  two  instances,  they  were  all  his  readers, 
had  seen  the  gruesome  pictures  he  had  presented,  and 
then  had  deliberately  purchased  the  coveted  aigrette. 

Personally  again  he  sought  the  most  intelligent  of  his 
woman-friends,  talked  with  scores  of  others,  and  found 
himseK  facing  the  same  trait  in  feminine  nature  which  he 
had  encountered  in  his  advocacy  of  American  fashions. 
But  this  time  it  seemed  to  Bok  that  the  facts  he  had 
presented  went  so  much  deeper. 

"It  will  be  hard  for  you  to  believe,"  said  one  of  his 
most  trusted  woman -friends.     "I  grant  your  arguments: 


EXCURSION  INTO  THE  FEMININE  NATURE    335 

there  is  no  gainsaying  them.  But  you  are  fighting  the 
same  thing  again  that  you  do  not  understand:  the 
feminine  nature  that  craves  outer  adornment  will  secure 
it  at  any  cost,  even  at  the  cost  of  suffering." 

''Yes,"  argued  Bok.  "But  if  there  is  one  thing  above 
everything  else  that  we  believe  a  woman  feels  and 
understands,  it  is  the  mother-instinct.  Do  you  mean 
to  tell  me  that  it  means  nothing  to  her  that  these  birds 
are  killed  in  their  period  of  motherhood,  and  that  a 
whole  nest  of  starving  baby-birds  is  the  price  of  every 
aigrette?" 

"I  won't  say  that  this  does  not  weigh  with  a  woman. 
It  does,  naturally.  But  when  it  comes  to  her  posses- 
sion of  an  ornament  of  beauty,  as  beautiful  as  the  ai- 
grette, it  weighs  with  her,  but  it  doesn't  tip  the  scale 
against  her  possession  of  it.  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  say 
this  to  you,  but  it  is  a  fact.  A  woman  will  regret  that 
the  mother-bird  must  be  tortured  and  her  babies  starve, 
but  she  will  have  the  aigrette.  She  simply  trains  her- 
self to  forget  the  origin. 

"Take  my  own  case.  You  will  doubtless  be  shocked 
when  I  tell  you  that  I  was  perfectly  aware  of  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  aigrette  is  obtained  before  you 
began  your  exposure  of  the  method.  But  did  it  prevent 
my  purchase  of  one?  Not  at  all.  Why?  Because  I 
am  a  woman:  I  realize  that  no  head  ornament  will  set 
off  my  hair  so  well  as  an  aigrette.  Say  I  am  cruel  if 
you  like.  I  wish  the  heron-mother  didn't  have  to  be 
killed  or  the  babies  starve,  but,  Mr.  Bok,  I  must  have  my 
beautiful  aigrette ! " 

Bok  was  frankly  astounded:  he  had  certainly  probed 


336   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

deep  this  time  into  the  feminine  nature.  With  every 
desire  and  instinct  to  disbelieve  the  facts,  the  deeper  his 
inquiries  went,  the  stronger  the  evidence  rolled  up: 
there  was  no  gainsaying  it;  no  sense  in  a  further  dis- 
belief of  it. 

But  Bok  was  determined  that  this  time  he  would  not 
fail.  His  sense  of  justice  and  protection  to  the  mother- 
bird  and  her  young  was  now  fully  aroused.  He  resolved 
that  he  would,  by  compulsion,  bring  about  what  he  had 
failed  to  do  by  persuasion.  He  would  make  it  impossi- 
ble for  women  to  be  untrue  to  their  most  sacred  instinct. 
He  sought  legal  talent,  had  a  bill  drawn  up  making  it  a 
misdemeanor  to  import,  sell,  purchase,  or  wear  an  ai- 
grette. Armed  with  this  measure,  and  the  photographs 
and  articles  which  he  had  published,  he  sought  and  ob- 
tained the  interest  and  promise  of  support  of  the  most 
influential  legislators  in  several  States.  He  felt  a  sense 
of  pride  in  his  own  sex  that  he  had  no  trouble  in  winning 
the  immediate  interest  of  every  legislator  with  whom  he 
talked. 

Where  he  had  failed  with  women,  he  was  succeeding 
with  men!  The  outrageous  butchery  of  the  birds  and 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  were  tortured  ap- 
pealed with  direct  force  to  the  sporting  instinct  in  every 
man,  and  aroused  him.  Bok  explained  to  each  that  he 
need  expect  no  support  for  such  a  measure  from  women 
save  from  the  members  of  the  Audubon  Societies,  and 
a  few  humanitarian  women  and  bird-lovers.  Women, 
as  a  whole,  he  argued  from  his  experiences,  while  they 
would  not  go  so  far  as  openly  to  oppose  such  a  measure, 
for  fear  of  public  comment,  would  do  nothing  to  further 


EXCURSION  INTO  THE  FEMININE  NATURE    337 

its  passage,  for  in  their  hearts  they  preferred  failure  to 
success  for  the  legislation.  They  had  frankly  told  him 
so:  he  was  not  speaking  from  theory. 

In  one  State  after  another  Bok  got  into  touch  with 
legislators.  He  counselled,  in  each  case,  a  quiet  passage 
for  the  measure  instead  of  one  that  would  draw  public 
attention  to  it. 

Meanwhile,  a  strong  initiative  had  come  from  the 
Audubon  Societies  throughout  the  country,  and  from 
the  National  Association  of  Audubon  Societies,  at  New 
York.  This  latter  society  also  caused  to  be  introduced 
bills  of  its  own  to  the  same  and  in  various  legislatures, 
and  here  Bok  had  a  valuable  ally.  It  was  a  curious 
fact  that  the  Audubon  officials  encountered  their 
strongest  resistance  in  Bok's  own  State:  Pennsylvania. 
But  Bok's  personal  acquaintance  with  legislators  in  his 
Keystone  State  helped  here  materially. 

The  demand  for  the  aigrette  constantly  increased  and 
rose  to  hitherto  unknown  figures.  In  one  State  where 
Bok's  measure  was  pending  before  the  legislature,  he 
heard  of  the  coming  of  an  unusually  large  shipment  of 
aigrettes  to  meet  this  increased  demand.  He  wired  the 
legislator  in  charge  of  the  measure  apprising  him  of  this 
fact,  of  what  he  intended  to  do,  and  urging  speed  in 
securing  the  passage  of  the  bill.  Then  he  caused  the 
shipment  to  be  seized  at  the  dock  on  the  ground  of  illegal 
importation. 

The  importing  firm  at  once  secured  an  injunction 
restraining  the  seizure.  Bok  replied  by  serving  a  writ 
setting  the  injunction  aside.  The  lawyers  of  the  im- 
porters got  busy,  of  course,  but  meanwhile  the  legislator 


338  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

had  taken  advantage  of  a  special  evening  session, 
had  the  bill  passed,  and  induced  the  governor  to  sign 
it,  the  act  taking  effect  at  once. 

This  was  exactly  what  Bok  had  been  playing  for.  The 
aigrettes  were  now  useless;  they  could  not  be  reshipped 
to  another  State,  they  could  not  be  offered  for  sale. 
The  suit  was  dropped,  and  Bok  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  the  entire  shipment,  valued  at  $160,000,  destroyed. 
He  had  not  saved  the  lives  of  the  mother-birds,  but,  at 
least,  he  had  prevented  hundreds  of  American  women 
from  wearing  the  hallmark  of  torture. 

State  after  State  now  passed  an  aigrette-prohibition 
law  until  fourteen  of  the  principal  States,  including  prac- 
tically all  the  large  cities,  fell  into  line. 

Later,  the  National  Association  of  Audubon  Societies 
had  introduced  into  the  United  States  Congress  and 
passed  a  bill  prohibiting  the  importation  of  bird-feathers 
into  the  country,  thus  bringing  a  Federal  law  into  ex- 
istence. 

Bok  had  won  his  fight,  it  is  true,  but  he  derived  little 
satisfaction  from  the  character  of  his  victory.  His 
ideal  of  womanhood  had  received  a  severe  jolt.  Women 
had  revealed  their  worst  side  to  him,  and  he  did  not  like 
the  picture.  He  had  appealed  to  what  he  had  been  led 
to  believe  was  the  most  sacred  instinct  in  a  woman's 
nature.  He  received  no  response.  Moreover,  he  saw 
the  deeper  love  for  personal  vanity  and  finery  absolutely 
dominate  the  mother-instinct.  He  was  conscious  that 
something  had  toppled  off  its  pedestal  which  could  never 
be  replaced. 

He  was  aware  that  his  mother's  words,  when  he  ac- 


EXCURSION  INTO  THE  FEMININE  NATURE    339 

cepted  his  editorial  position,  were  coming  terribly  true: 
"I  am  sorry  you  are  going  to  take  this  position.  It 
will  cost  you  the  high  ideal  you  have  always  held  of 
your  mother's  sex.  But  a  nature,  as  is  the  feminine 
nature,  wholly  swayed  inwardly  by  emotion,  and  out- 
wardly influenced  by  an  insatiate  love  for  personal 
adornment,  will  never  stand  the  analysis  you  will  give 
it." 

He  realized  that  he  was  paying  a  high  price  for  his 
success.  Such  experiences  as  these — and,  unfortu- 
nately, they  were  only  two  of  several — were  doubtless  in 
his  mind  when,  upon  his  retirement,  the  newspapers 
clamored  for  his  opinions  of  women.  ''No,  thank  you," 
he  said  to  one  and  all,  "not  a  word." 

He  did  not  give  his  reasons. 

He  never  will. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

CLEANING  UP  THE  PATENT-MEDICINE  AND  OTHER 

EVILS 

In  1892  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  announced  that 
it  would  thereafter  accept  no  advertisements  of  patent 
medicines  for  its  pages.  It  was  a  pioneer  stroke.  Dur- 
ing the  following  two  years,  seven  other  newspapers  and 
periodicals  followed  suit.  The  American  people  were 
slaves  to  self-medication,  and  the  patent-medicine  makers 
had  it  all  their  own  way.  There  was  little  or  no  legal 
regulation  as  to  the  ingredients  in  their  nostrums;  the 
mails  were  wide  open  to  their  circulars,  and  the  pages 
of  even  the  most  reputable  periodicals  welcomed  their 
advertisements.  The  patent- medicine  business  in  the 
United  States  ran  into  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  dol- 
lars annually.  The  business  is  still  large;  then  it  was 
enormous. 

Into  this  army  of  deceit  and  spurious  medicines. 
The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  fired  the  first  gun.  Neither 
the  public  nor  the  patent- medicine  p)eople  paid  much 
attention  to  the  first  attacks.  But  as  they  grew,  and  the 
evidence  multiplied,  the  public  began  to  comment  and 
the  nostrum  makers  began  to  get  uneasy. 

The  magazine  attacked  the  evil  from  every  angle.     It 

aroused  the  public  by  showing  the  actual  contents  of 

some  of  their  pet  medicines,  or  the  absolute  worthless- 

ness  of  them.    The  Editor  got  the  Women's  Christian 

340 


CLEANING   UP  PATENT-MEDICINE  EVILS     341 

Temperance  Union  into  action  against  the  periodicals 
for  publishing  advertisements  of  medicines  containing  as 
high  as  forty  per  cent  alcohol.  He  showed  that  the  most 
confidential  letters  written  by  women  with  private  ail- 
ments were  opened  by  young  clerks  of  both  sexes,  laughed 
at  and  gossiped  over,  and  that  afterward  their  names  and 
addresses,  which  they  had  been  told  were  held  in  the 
strictest  confidence,  were  sold  to  other  lines  of  business 
for  five  cents  each.  He  held  the  religious  press  up  to 
the  scorn  of  church  members  for  accepting  advertise- 
ments which  the  publishers  knew  and  which  he  proved 
to  be  not  only  fraudulent,  but  actually  harmful.  He 
called  the  United  States  Post  Office  authorities  to  ac- 
count for  accepting  and  distributing  obscene  circular 
matter. 

He  cut  an  advertisement  out  of  a  newspaper  which 
ended  with  the  statement: 

Mrs,  Pinkham,  in  her  laboratory  at  Lynn,  Massachusetts, 
is  able  to  do  more  for  the  ailing  women  of  America  than  the 
family  physician.  Any  woman,  therefore,  is  responsible  for 
her  own  suffering  who  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  write  to 
Mrs.  Pinkham  for  advice. 

Next  to  this  advertisement  representing  Mrs.  Lydia 
Pinkham  as  "in  her  laboratory,"  Bok  simply  placed  the 
photograph  of  Mrs.  Pinkham's  tombstone  in  Pine  Grove 
Cemetery,  at  Lynn,  showing  that  Mrs.  Pinkham  had 
passed  away  twenty- two  years  before ! 

It  was  one  of  the  most  effective  pieces  of  copy  that 
the  magazine  used  in  the  campaign.  It  told  its  story 
with  absolute  simplicity,  but  with  deadly  force. 


342   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

The  proprietors  of  "Mrs.  Winslow's  Soothing  Syrup" 
had  strenuously  denied  the  presence  of  morphine  in  their 
preparation.  Bok  simply  bought  a  bottle  of  the  syrup 
in  London,  where,  under  the  English  Pharmacy  Act,  the 
authorities  compelled  the  proprietors  of  the  syrup  to 
af&x  the  following  declaration  on  each  bottle:  "This 
preparation,  containing,  among  other  valuable  ingredi- 
ents, a  small  amount  of  morphine  is,  in  accordance  with 
the  Pharmacy  Act,  hereby  labelled  'Poison!'"  The 
magazine  published  a  photograph  of  the  label,  and  it 
told  its  own  convincing  story.  It  is  only  fair  to  say 
that  the  makers  of  this  remedy  now  publish  their 
formula. 

Bok  now  slipped  a  cog  in  his  machinery.  He  published 
a  list  of  twenty-seven  medicines,  by  name,  and  told  what 
they  contained.  One  preparation,  he  said,  contained 
alcohol,  opium,  and  digitalis.  He  believed  he  had  been 
extremely  careful  in  this  list.  He  had  consulted  the 
highest  medical  authorities,  physicians,  and  chemists. 
But  in  the  instance  of  the  one  preparation  referred  to 
above  he  was  wrong. 

The  analysis  had  been  furnished  by  the  secretary  of 
the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Massachusetts;  a  recog- 
nized expert,  who  had  taken  it  from  the  analysis  of  a 
famous  German  chemist.  It  was  in  nearly  every  stand- 
ard medical  authority,  and  was  accepted  by  the  best 
medical  authorities.  Bok  accepted  these  authorities 
as  final.  Nevertheless,  the  analysis  and  the  experts 
were  wrong.  A  suit  for  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
was  brought  by  the  patent-medicine  company  against 
The  Curtis  Publishing  Company,  and,  of  course,  it  was 


CLEANING  UP  PATENT-MEDICINE  EVILS     343 

decided  in  favor  of  the  former.  But  so  strong  a  public 
sentiment  had  been  created  against  the  whole  business 
of  patent  medicines  by  this  time  that  the  jury  gave  a 
verdict  of  only  sixteen  thousand  dollars,  with  costs, 
against  the  magazine. 

Undaunted,  Bok  kept  on.  He  now  engaged  Mark 
Sullivan,  then  a  young  lawyer  in  downtown  New  York, 
induced  him  to  give  up  his  practice,  and  bring  his  legal 
mind  to  bear  upon  the  problem.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  Sullivan's  subsequent  journalistic  career,  and  he 
justified  Bok's  confidence  in  him.  He  exposed  the  testi- 
monials to  patent  medicines  from  senators  and  con- 
gressmen then  so  widely  published,  showed  how  they 
were  obtained  by  a  journalist  in  Washington  who  made 
a  business  of  it.  He  charged  seventy-five  dollars  for  a 
senator's  testimonial,  forty  dollars  for  that  of  a  congress- 
man, and  accepted  no  contract  for  less  than  five  thou- 
sand dollars. 

Sullivan  next  exposed  the  disgraceful  violation  of  the 
confidence  of  women  by  these  nostrum  vendors  in  sell- 
ing their  most  confidential  letters  to  any  one  who  would 
buy  them.  Sullivan  himself  bought  thousands  of  these 
letters  and  names,  and  then  wrote  about  them  in  the 
magazine.  One  prominent  firm  indignantly  denied  the 
charge,  asserting  that  whatever  others  might  have  done, 
their  names  were  always  held  sacred.  In  answer  to 
this  declaration  Sullivan  published  an  advertisement  of 
this  righteous  concern  offering  fifty  thousand  of  their 
names  for  sale. 

Bok  had  now  kept  up  the  fight  for  over  two  years, 
and  the  results  were  apparent  on  every  hand.     Reputa- 


344  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

ble  newspapers  and  magazines  were  closing  their  pages 
to  the  advertisements  of  patent  medicines;  legislation 
was  appearing  in  several  States;  the  public  had  been 
awakened  to  the  fraud  practised  upon  it,  and  a  Federal 
Pure  Food  and  Drug  Act  was  beginning  to  be  talked 
about. 

Single-handed,  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  kept  up  the 
fight  until  Mark  Sullivan  produced  an  unusually  strong 
article,  but  too  legalistic  for  the  magazine.  He  called  the 
attention  of  Norman  Hapgood,  then  editor  of  Collier^ s 
Weekly,  to  it,  who  accepted  it  at  once,  and,  with  Bok's 
permission,  engaged  Sullivan,  who  later  succeeded  Hap- 
good as  editor  of  Collier^s.  Robert  J.  Collier  now 
brought  Samuel  Hopkins  Adams  to  Bok's  attention  and 
asked  the  latter  if  he  should  object  if  Collier^s  Weekly 
joined  him  in  his  fight.  The  Philadelphia  editor  natu- 
rally welcomed  the  help  of  the  weekly,  and  Adams  began 
his  wonderfully  effective  campaign. 

The  weekly  and  the  monthly  now  pounded  away  to- 
gether; other  periodicals  and  newspapers,  seeing  suc- 
cess ahead,  and  desiring  to  be  part  of  it  and  share  the 
glory,  came  into  the  conflict,  and  it  was  not  long  be- 
fore so  strong  a  public  sentiment  had  been  created  as 
to  bring  about  the  passage  of  the  United  States  Food  arid 
Drug  Act,  and  the  patent-medicine  business  of  the 
United  States  had  received  a  blow  from  which  it  has 
never  recovered.  To-day  the  pages  of  every  newspaper 
and  periodical  of  recognized  standing  are  closed  to  the 
advertisements  of  patent  medicines;  the  Drug  Act  reg- 
ulates the  ingredients,  and  post  office  officials  scan  the 
literature  sent  through  the  United  States  mails. 


CLEANING   UP  PATENT-MEDICINE   EVILS     345 

There  are  distinct  indications  that  the  time  has  come 
once  more  to  scan  the  patent-medicine  horizon  carefully, 
but  the  conditions  existing  in  1920  are  radically  different 
from  those  prevailing  in  1904. 

One  day  when  Bok  was  at  luncheon  with  Doctor  Ly- 
man Abbott,  the  latter  expressed  the  wish  that  Bok 
would  take  up  the  subject  of  venereal  disease  as  he  had 
the  patent-medicine  question. 

"Not  our  question,"  answered  Bok. 

"It  is  most  decidedly  your  question,"  was  the  reply. 

Bok  cherished  the  highest  regard  for  Doctor  Abbott's 
opinion  and  judgment,  and  this  positive  declaration 
amazed  him. 

"Read  up  on  the  subject,"  counselled  Doctor  Abbott, 
"and  you  will  find  that  the  evil  has  its  direct  roots  in 
the  home  with  the  parents.  You  will  agree  with  me 
before  you  go  very  far  that  it  is  your  question." 

Bok  began  to  read  on  the  unsavory  subject.  It  was 
exceedingly  unpleasant  reading,  but  for  two  years  Bok 
persisted,  only  to  find  that  Doctor  Abbott  was  right. 
The  root  of  the  evil  lay  in  the  reticence  of  parents  with 
children  as  to  the  mystery  of  life;  boys  and  girls  were 
going  out  into  the  world  blind-folded  as  to  any  knowledge 
of  their  physical  selves;  "the  bloom  must  not  be  rubbed 
off  the  peach,"  was  the  belief  of  thousands  of  parents, 
and  the  results  were  appalling.  Bok  pursued  his  inves- 
tigations from  books  direct  into  the  "Homes  of  Refuge," 
"Doors  of  Hope,"  and  similar  institutions,  and  un- 
earthed a  condition,  the  direct  results  of  the  false  modesty 
of  parents,  that  was  almost  unbelievable. 

Bok  had  now  all  his  facts,  but  realized  that  for  his 


346   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

magazine,  of  all  magazines,  to  take  up  this  subject 
would  be  like  a  bolt  from  the  blue  in  tens  of  thousands  of 
homes.  But  this  very  fact,  the  unquestioned  position 
of  the  magazine,  the  remarkable  respect  which  its 
readers  had  for  it,  and  the  confidence  with  which  parents 
placed  the  periodical  on  their  home  tables — all  this  was, 
after  all,  Bok  thought,  the  more  reason  why  he  should 
take  up  the  matter  and  thresh  it  out.  He  consulted 
with  friends,  who  advised  against  it;  his  editors  were 
all  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  the  unsavory  subject 
into  the  magazine. 

"But  it  isn't  unsavory,"  argued  Bok.  "That  is  just 
it.  We  have  made  it  so  by  making  it  mysterious,  by 
surrounding  it  with  silence,  by  making  it  a  forbidden 
topic.     It  is  the  most  beautiful  story  in  life." 

Mr.  Curtis,  alone,  encouraged  his  editor.  Was  he 
sure  he  was  right?  If  he  was,  why  not  go  ahead? 
Bok  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  a  heavy  loss  in 
circulation  was  a  foregone  conclusion;  he  could  cal- 
culate upon  one  hundred  thousand  subscribers,  at  least, 
stopping  the  magazine.  "It  is  a  question  of  right," 
answered  the  publisher,  "not  of  circulation." 

And  so,  in  1906,  with  the  subject  absolutely  prohibited 
in  every  periodical  and  newspaper  of  standing,  never 
discussed  at  a  public  gathering  save  at  medical  meetings, 
Bok  published  his  first  editorial. 

The  readers  of  his  magazine  fairly  gasped;  they  were 
dumb  with  astonishment!  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal, 
of  all  magazines,  to  discuss  such  a  subject !  When  they 
had  recovered  from  their  astonishment,  the  parents 
began  to  write  letters,  and  one  morning  Bok  was  con- 


CLEANING  UP  PATENT-MEDICINE  EVILS     347 

fronted  with  a  large  waste-basket  full  brought  in  by  his 
two  office  boys. 

"Protests,"  laconically  explained  one  of  his  editors. 
"More  than  that,  the  majority  threaten  to  stop  their 
subscription  unless  you  stop." 

"All  right,  that  proves  I  am  right,"  answered  Bok. 
"Write  to  each  one  and  say  that  what  I  have  written  is 
nothing  as  compared  in  frankness  to  what  is  coming, 
and  that  we  shall  be  glad  to  refund  the  unfulfilled  part 
of  their  subscriptions." 

Day  after  day,  thousands  of  letters  came  in.  The 
next  issue  contained  another  editorial,  stronger  than  the 
first.  Bok  explained  that  he  would  not  tell  the  actual 
story  of  the  beginning  of  life  in  the  magazine — that  was 
the  prerogative  of  the  parents,  and  he  had  no  notion  of 
taking  it  away  from  either;  but  that  he  meant  to  insist 
upon  putting  their  duty  squarely  up  to  them,  that  he 
realized  it  was  a  long  fight,  hence  the  articles  to  come 
would  be  many  and  continued;  and  that  those  of  his 
readers  who  did  not  believe  in  bis  policy  had  better  stop 
the  magazine  at  once.  But  he  reminded  them  that  no 
solution  of  any  question  was  ever  reached  by  running 
away  from  it.  This  question  had  to  be  faced  some 
time,  and  now  was  as  good  a  time  as  any. 

Thousands  of  subscriptions  were  stopped;  advertise- 
ments gave  notice  that  they  would  cancel  their  accounts; 
the  greatest  pressure  was  placed  upon  Mr.  Curtis  to 
order  his  editor  to  cease,  and  Bok  had  the  grim  experience 
of  seeing  his  magazine,  hitherto  proclaimed  all  over  the 
land  as  a  model  advocate  of  the  virtues,  refused  ad- 
mittance into  thousands  of  homes,  and  saw  his  own 


348   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

friends  tear  the  offending  pages  out  of  the  periodical  be- 
fore it  was  allowed  to  find  a  place  on  their  home- tables. 

But  The  Journal  kept  steadily  on.  Number  after 
number  contained  some  article  on  the  subject,  and 
finally  such  men  and  women  as  Jane  Addams,  Cardinal 
Gibbons,  Margaret  Deland,  Henry  van  Dyke,  Presi- 
dent Eliot,  the  Bishop  of  London,  braved  the  public 
storm,  came  to  Bok's  aid,  and  wrote  articles  for  his  mag- 
azine heartily  backing  up  his  lonely  fight. 

The  public,  seeing  this  array  of  distinguished  opinion 
expressing  itself,  began  to  wonder  "whether  there  might 
not  be  something  in  what  Bok  was  saying,  after  all." 
At  the  end  of  eighteen  months,  inquiries  began  to  take 
the  place  of  protests;  and  Bok  knew  then  that  the  fight 
was  won.  He  employed  two  experts,  one  man  and  one 
woman,  to  answer  the  inquiries,  and  he  had  published 
a  series  of  little  books,  each  written  by  a  different  author 
on  a  different  aspect  of  the  question. 

This  series  was  known  as  The  Edward  Bok  Books. 
They  sold  for  twenty-five  cents  each,  without  profit  to 
either  editor  or  publisher.  The  series  sold  into  the 
tens  of  thousands.  Information  was,  therefore,  to  be 
had,  in  authoritative  form,  enabling  every  parent  to  tell 
the  story  to  his  or  her  child.  Bok  now  insisted  that 
every  parent  should  do  this,  and  announced  that  he 
intended  to  keep  at  the  subject  until  the  parents  did. 
He  explained  that  the  magazine  had  lost  about  seventy- 
five  thousand  subscribers,  and  that  it  might  just  as  well 
lose  some  more;  but  that  the  insistence  should  go  on. 

Slowly  but  surely  the  subject  became  a  debatable  one. 
Where,    when    Bok    began,    the    leading    prophylactic 


CLEANING  UP  PATENT-MEDICINE  EVILS     349 

society  in  New  York  could  not  secure  five  speaking  dates 
for  its  single  lecturer  during  a  session,  it  was  now  put 
to  it  to  find  open  dates  for  over  ten  speakers.  Mothers' 
clubs,  women's  clubs,  and  organizations  of  all  kinds 
clamored  for  authoritative  talks;  here  and  there  a 
much-veiled  article  apologetically  crept  into  print,  and 
occasionally  a  progressive  school  board  or  educational 
institution  experimented  with  a  talk  or  two. 

The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  published  a  full-page  edi- 
torial declaring  that  seventy  of  every  one  hundred  special 
surgical  operations  on  women  were  directly  or  indirectly 
the  result  of  one  cause;  that  sixty  of  every  one  hundred 
new-born  blinded  babies  were  blinded  soon  after  birth 
from  this  same  cause;  and  that  every  man  knew  what 
this  cause  was ! 

Letters  from  men  now  began  to  pour  in  by  the  hun- 
dreds. With  an  oath  on  nearly  every  line,  they  told 
him  that  their  wives,  daughters,  sisters,  or  mothers  had 
demanded  to  know  this  cause,  and  that  they  had  to  tell 
them.  Bok  answered  these  heated  men  and  told  them 
that  was  exactly  why  the  Journal  had  published  the 
editorial,  and  that  in  the  next  issue  there  would  be  an- 
other for  those  women  who  might  have  missed  his  first. 
He  insisted  that  the  time  had  come  when  women  should 
learn  the  truth,  and  that,  so  far  as  it  lay  in  his  power, 
he  intended  to  see  that  they  did  know. 

The  tide  of  public  opinion  at  last  turned  toward  The 
Ladies^  Home  Journal  and  its  campaign.  Women  began 
to  realize  that  it  had  a  case;  that  it  was  working  for 
their  best  interests  and  for  those  of  their  children,  and 
they  decided  that  the  question  might  as  well  be  faced. 


3  so  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Bok  now  felt  that  his  part  in  the  work  was  done.  He 
had  started  something  well  on  its  way;  the  common  sense 
of  the  public  must  do  the  rest.  He  had  taken  the  ques- 
tion of  natural  life,  and  stripped  it  of  its  false  mystery 
in  the  minds  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  young  people; 
had  started  their  inquiring  minds;  had  shown  parents 
the  way;  had  made  a  forbidden  topic  a  debatable  sub- 
ject, discussed  in  open  gatherings,  by  the  press,  an  in- 
creasing number  of  books,  and  in  schools  and  colleges. 
He  dropped  the  subject,  only  to  take  up  one  that  was 
more  or  less  akin  to  it. 

That  was  the  public  drinking-cup.  Here  was  a  dis- 
tinct menace  that  actual  examples  and  figures  showed 
was  spreading  the  most  loathsome  diseases  among 
innocent  children.  In  1908,  he  opened  up  the  subject 
by  ruthlessly  publishing  photographs  that  were  un- 
pleasantly but  tremendously  convincing.  He  had  now 
secured  the  confidence  of  his  vast  public,  who  listened 
attentively  to  him  when  he  spoke  on  an  unpleasant 
topic;  and  having  learned  from  experience  that  he  would 
simply  keep  on  until  he  got  results,  his  readers  decided 
that  this  time  they  would  act  quickly.  So  quick  a  re- 
sult was  hardly  ever  achieved  in  any  campaign.  Within 
six  months  legislation  all  over  the  country  was  intro- 
duced or  enacted  prohibiting  the  common  drinking-cup 
in  any  public  gathering-place,  park,  store,  or  theatre, 
and  substituting  the  individual  paper  cup.  Almost 
over  night,  the  germ-laden  common  drinking-cup,  which 
had  so  widely  spread  disease,  disappeared;  and  in  a 
number  of  States,  the  common  towel,  upon  Bok's  in- 
sistence, met  the  same  fate.     Within  a  year,  one  of  the 


CLEANING  UP  PATENT-MEDICINE  EVILS     351 

worst  menaces  to  American  life  had  been  wiped  out  by 
public  sentiment. 

Bok  was  now  done  with  health  measures  for  a 
while,  and  determined  to  see  what  he  could  do  with  two 
or  three  civic  questions  that  he  felt  needed  attention. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
ADVENTURES  IN  CIVICS 

The  electric  power  companies  at  Niagara  Falls  were 
beginning  to  draw  so  much  water  from  above  the  great 
Horseshoe  Falls  as  to  bring  into  speculation  the  question 
of  how  soon  America's  greatest  scenic  asset  would  be  a 
coal-pile  with  a  thin  trickle  of  water  crawling  down  its 
vast  cliffs.  Already  companies  had  been  given  legal 
permission  to  utilize  one-quarter  of  the  whole  flow,  and 
additional  companies  were  asking  for  further  grants. 
Permission  for  forty  per  cent  of  the  whole  volume  of 
water  had  been  granted.  J.  Horace  McFarland,  as 
President  of  the  American  Civic  Association,  called 
Bok's  attention  to  the  matter,  and  urged  him  to  agitate 
it  through  his  magazine  so  that  restrictive  legislation 
might  be  secured. 

Bok  went  to  Washington,  conferred  with  President 
Roosevelt,  and  found  him  cognizant  of  the  matter  in  all 
its  aspects. 

"I  can  do  nothing,"  said  the  President,  "unless  there 
is  an  awakened  public  sentiment  that  compels  action. 
Give  me  that,  and  I'll  either  put  the  subject  in  my  next 
message  to  Congress  or  send  a  special  message.  I'm 
from  Missouri  on  this  point,"  continued  the  President. 
"Show  me  that  the  American  people  want  their  Falls 
preserved,  and  I'll  do  the  rest.  But  I've  got  to  be 
shown."  Bok  assured  the  President  he  could  demon- 
strate this  to  him. 

3Sa 


ADVENTURES  IN  CIVICS  353 

The  next  number  of  his  magazine  presented  a  graphic 
picture  of  the  Horseshoe  Falls  as  they  were  and 'the  same 
Falls  as  they  would  be  if  more  water  was  allowed  to  be 
taken  for  power:  a  barren  coal-pile  with  a  tiny  rivulet 
of  water  trickling  down  its  sides.  The  editorial  asked 
whether  the  American  women  were  going  to  allow  this? 
If  not,  each,  if  an  American,  should  write  to  the  Presi- 
dent, and,  if  a  Canadian,  to  Earl  Grey,  then  Governor- 
General  of  Canada.  Very  soon  after  the  magazine  had 
reached  its  subscribers'  hands,  the  letters  began  to  reach 
the  White  House;  not  by  dozens,  as  the  President's 
secretary  wrote  to  Bok,  but  by  the  hundreds  and  then 
by  the  thousands.  ''Is  there  any  way  to  turn  this 
spigot  ofif?"  telegraphed  the  President's  secretar)^ 
"We  are  really  being  inundated." 

Bok  went  to  Washington  and  was  shown  the  huge  pile 
of  letters. 

"All  right,"  said  the  President.  "That's  all  I  want. 
You've  proved  it  to  me  that  there  is  a  public  sentiment." 

The  clerks  at  Rideau  Hall,  at  Ottawa,  did  not  know 
what  had  happened  one  morning  when  the  mail  quad- 
rupled in  size  and  thousands  of  protests  came  to  Earl 
Grey.  He  wired  the  President,  the  President  exchanged 
views  with  the  governor-general,  and  the  great  inter- 
national campaign  to  save  Niagara  Falls  had  begun. 
The  American  Civic  Association  and  scores  of  other 
civic  and  patriotic  bodies  had  joined  in  the  clamor. 

The  attorney-general  and  the  secretary  of  state  were 
instructed  by  the  President  to  look  into  the  legal  and 
diplomatic  aspects  of  the  question,  and  in  his  next  mes- 
sage to  Congress  President  Roosevelt  uttered  a  clarion 


354   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

call  to  that  body  to  restrict  the  power-grabbing  com- 
panies. 

The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  urged  its  readers  to  write 
to  their  congressmen  and  they  did  by  the  thousands. 
Every  congressman  and  senator  was  overwhelmed.  As 
one  senator  said:  "I  have  never  seen  such  an  avalanche. 
But  thanks  to  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal,  I  have  received 
these  hundreds  of  letters  from  my  constituents;  they 
have  told  me  what  they  want  done,  and  they  are  mostly 
from  those  of  my  people  whose  wishes  I  am  bound  to 
respect." 

The  power  companies,  of  course,  promptly  sent  their 
attorneys  and  lobbyists  to  Washington;  but  the  public 
sentiment  aroused  was  too  strong  to  be  disregarded,  and 
on  June  29,  1906,  the  President  signed  the  Burton 
Bill  restricting  the  use  of  the  water  of  Niagara  Falls. 

The  matter  was  then  referred  to  the  secretary  of  war, 
William  Howard  Taft,  to  grant  the  use  of  such  volume 
of  water  as  would  preserve  the  beauty  of  the  Falls. 
McFarland  and  Bok  wanted  to  be  sure  that  Secretary 
Taft  felt  the  support  of  public  opinion,  for  his  policy 
was  to  be  conservative,  and  tremendous  pressure  was 
being  brought  upon  him  from  every  side  to  permit  a 
more  liberal  use  of  water.  Bok  turned  to  his  readers 
and  asked  them  to  write  to  Secretary  Taft  and  assure 
him  of  the  support  of  the  American  women  in  his  at- 
titude of  conservatism. 

The  flood  of  letters  that  descended  upon  the  secretary 
almost  taxed  even  his  genial  nature;  and  when  Mr. 
McFarland,  as  the  editorial  representative  of  The  Ladies^ 
Home  Journal,  arose  to  speak  at  the  public  hearing  in 


ADVENTURES  IN  CIVICS  355 

Washington,  the  secretary  said:  "I  can  assure  you  that 
you  don't  have  to  say  very  much.  Your  case  has  al- 
ready been  pleaded  for  you  by,  I  should  say  at  the  most 
conservative  estimate,  at  least  one  hundred  thousand 
women.  Why,  I  have  had  letters  from  even  my  wife 
and  my  mother." 

Secretary  Taft  adhered  to  his  conservative  policy. 
Sir  Wilfred  Laurier,  premier  of  Canada,  met  the  over- 
tures of  Secretary  of  State  Root,  a  new  international 
document  was  drawn  up,  and  Niagara  Falls  had  been 
saved  to  the  American  people. 

In  1905  and  in  previous  years  the  casualties  resulting 
from  j&reworks  on  the  Fourth  of  July  averaged  from  five 
to  six  thousand  each  year.  The  humorous  weekly  Life 
and  The  Chicago  Tribune  had  been  for  some  time  agitat- 
ing a  restricted  use  of  fireworks  on  the  national  fete  day, 
but  nevertheless  the  list  of  casualties  kept  creeping  to 
higher  figures.  Bok  decided  to  help  by  arousing  the 
parents  of  America,  in  whose  hands,  after  all,  lay  the 
remedy.  He  began  a  series  of  articles  in  the  magazine, 
showing  what  had  happened  over  a  period  of  years,  the 
criminality  of  allowing  so  many  young  lives  to  be  snuffed 
out,  and  suggested  how  parents  could  help  by  prohibit- 
ing the  deadly  firecrackers  and  cannon,  and  how  organ- 
izations could  assist  by  influencing  the  passing  of  city 
ordinances.  Each  recurring  January,  The  Journal  re- 
turned to  the  subject,  looking  forward  to  the  coming 
Fourth.  It  was  a  deep-rooted  custom  to  eradicate,  and 
powerful  influences,  in  the  form  of  thousands  of  small 
storekeepers,  were  at  work  upon  local  officials  to  pay  no 
heed  to  the  agitation.    Gradually  public  opinion  changed. 


356   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

The  newspapers  joined  in  the  cry;  women's  organiza- 
tions insisted  upon  action  from  local  municipal  bodies. 

Finally,  the  civic  spirit  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  forced  the 
passage  of  a  city  ordinance  prohibiting  the  sale  or  use 
of  fireworks  on  the  Fourth.  The  following  year  when 
Cleveland  reported  no  casualties  as  compared  to  an  ugly 
list  for  the  previous  Fourth,  a  distinct  impression  was 
made  upon  other  cities.  Gradually,  other  municipalities 
took  action,  and  year  by  year  the  list  of  Fourth  of  July 
casualties  grew  perceptibly  shorter.  New  York  City  was 
now  induced  to  join  the  list  of  prohibitive  cities,  by  a 
personal  appeal  made  to  its  mayor  by  Bok,  and  on  the 
succeeding  Fourth  of  July  the  city  authorities,  on  behalf 
of  the  people  of  New  York  City,  conferred  a  gold  medal 
upon  Edward  Bok  for  his  services  in  connection  with 
the  birth  of  the  new  Fourth  in  that  city. 

There  still  remains  much  to  be  done  in  cities  as  yet 
unawakened;  but  a  comparison  of  the  list  of  casualties 
of  1920  with  that  of  1905  proves  the  growth  in  en- 
lightened public  sentiment  in  fifteen  years  to  have  been 
steadily  increasing.  It  is  an  instance  not  of  Bok 
taking  the  initiative — that  had  already  been  taken — 
but  of  throwing  the  whole  force  of  the  magazine  with 
those  working  in  the  field  to  help.  It  is  the  American 
woman  who  is  primarily  responsible  for  the  safe  and  sane 
Fourth,  so  far  as  it  already  exists  in  this  country  to-day, 
and  it  is  the  American  woman  who  can  make  it  universal. 

Mrs.  Pennypacker,  as  president  of  The  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs,  now  brought  to  Bok's  attention  the 
conditions  under  which  the  average  rural  school-teacher 
lived;    the  suffering  often  entailed  on  her  in  having  to 


ADVENTURES  IN  CIVICS  357 

walk  miles  to  the  schoolhouse  in  wintry  weather;  the 
discomfort  she  had  to  put  up  with  in  the  farm-houses 
where  she  was  compelled  to  live,  with  the  natural  re- 
sult, under  those  conditions,  that  it  was  almost  impossi- 
ble to  secure  the  services  of  capable  teachers,  or  to  have 
good  teaching  even  where  efl&cient  teachers  were  ob- 
tained. 

Mrs.  Pennypacker  suggested  that  Bok  undertake  the 
creation  of  a  public  sentiment  for  a  residence  for  the 
teacher  in  connection  with  the  schoolhouse.  The  par- 
son was  given  a  parsonage;  why  not  the  teacher  a 
"  teacherage "  ?  The  Journal  co-operated  with  Mrs. 
Pennypacker  and  she  began  the  agitation  of  the  subject 
in  the  magazine.  She  also  spoke  on  the  subject  wher- 
ever she  went,  and  induced  women's  clubs  all  over  the 
country  to  join  the  magazine  in  its  advocacy  of  the 
"teacherage." 

By  personal  effort,  several  "  teacherages "  were  es- 
tablished in  connection  with  new  schoolhouses;  photo- 
graphs of  these  were  published  and  sent  personally  to 
school-boards  all  over  the  country;  the  members  of 
women's  clubs  saw  to  it  that  the  articles  were  brought 
to  the  attention  of  members  of  their  local  school-boards; 
and  the  now-generally  accepted  idea  that  a  ''teacherage" 
must  accompany  a  new  schoolhouse  was  well  on  its  way 
to  national  recognition. 

It  only  remains  now  for  communities  to  install  a  visit- 
ing nurse  in  each  of  these  "  teacherages "  so  that  the 
teacher  need  not  live  in  solitary  isolation,  and  that  the 
health  of  the  children  at  school  can  be  looked  after  at  first 
hand.     Then  the  nurse  shall  be  at  the  call  of  every  small 


358  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

American  community — ^particularly  to  be  available  in 
cases  of  childbirth,  since  in  these  thinly  settled  districts 
it  is  too  often  impossible  to  obtain  the  services  of  a 
physician,  with  the  result  of  a  high  percentage  of  fatali- 
ties to  mothers  that  should  not  be  tolerated  by  a  wealthy 
and  progressive  people.  No  American  mother,  at  child- 
birth, should  be  denied  the  assistance  of  professional 
skill,  no  matter  how  far  she  may  live  from  a  physician. 
And  here  is  where  a  visiting  nurse  in  every  community 
can  become  an  institution  of  inestimable  value. 

Just  about  this  time  a  group  of  Philadelphia  physi- 
cians, headed  by  Doctor  Samuel  McClintock  Hamill, 
which  had  formed  itself  into  a  hygienic  committee  for 
babies,  waited  upon  Bok  to  ask  him  to  join  them  in  the 
creation  of  a  permanent  organization  devoted  to  the 
welfare  of  babies  and  children.  Bok  found  that  he  was 
dealing  with  a  company  of  representative  physicians, 
and  helped  to  organize  "The  Child  Federation,"  an 
organization  "to  do  good  on  a  business  basis." 

It  was  to  go  to  the  heart  of  the  problem  of  the  baby 
in  the  congested  districts  of  Philadelphia,  and  do  a  piece 
of  intensive  work  in  the  ward  having  the  highest  infant 
mortality,  establishing  the  first  health  centre  in  the 
United  States  actively  managed  by  competent  physicians 
and  nurses.  This  centre  was  to  demonstrate  to  the  city 
authorities  that  the  fearful  mortality  among  babies, 
particularly  in  summer,  could  be  reduced. 

Meanwhile,  there  was  created  a  "Baby  Saving  Show," 
a  set  of  graphic  pictures  conveying  to  the  eye  methods 
of  sanitation  and  other  too  often  disregarded  essentials 
of  the  wise  care  and  feeding  of  babies ;  and  this  travelled, 


ADVENTURES  IN  CIVICS  359 

like  a  theatrical  attraction,  to  different  parts  of  the  city. 
"Little  Mothers'  Leagues"  were  organized  to  teach  the 
little  girl  of  ten  or  twelve,  so  often  left  in  charge  of  a 
family  of  children  when  the  mother  is  at  work  during 
the  day,  and  demonstrations  were  given  in  various  parts 
of  the  city. 

The  Child  Federation  now  undertook  one  activity 
after  the  other.  Under  its  auspices,  the  first  municipal 
Christmas  tree  ever  erected  in  Philadelphia  was  shown  in 
the  historic  Independence  Square,  and  with  two  bands  of 
music  giving  concerts  every  day  from  Christmas  to 
New  Year's  Day,  attracted  over  two  hundred  thousand 
persons.  A  pavilion  was  erected  in  City  Hall  Square, 
the  most  central  spot  in  the  city,  and  the  ''Baby  Saving 
Show"  was  permanently  placed  there  and  visited  by  over 
one  hundred  thousand  visitors  from  every  part  of  the 
country  on  their  way  to  and  from  the  Pennsylvania  Sta- 
tion at  Broad  Street. 

A  searching  investigation  of  the  Day  Nurseries  of 
Philadelphia — probably  one  of  the  most  admirable 
pieces  of  research  work  ever  made  in  a  city — changed 
the  methods  in  vogue  and  became  a  standard  guide  for 
similar  institutions  throughout  the  country.  So  success- 
ful were  the  Little  Mothers'  Leagues  that  they  were 
introduced  into  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia,  and 
are  to-day  a  regular  part  of  the  curriculum.  The  Health 
Centre,  its  success  being  proved,  was  taken  over  by  the 
city  Board  of  Health,  and  three  others  were  established. 

To-day  The  Child  Federation  is  recognized  as  one  of 
the  most  practically  conducted  child  welfare  agencies  in 
Philadelphia,  and  its  methods  have  been  followed  by 


36o   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

similar  organizations  all  over  the  country.  It  is  now 
rapidly  becoming  the  central  medium  through  which 
the  other  agencies  in  Philadelphia  are  working,  thus 
avoiding  the  duplication  of  infant  welfare  work  in  the 
city.  Broadening  its  scope,  it  is  not  unlikely  to  become 
one  of  the  greatest  indirect  influences  in  the  welfare  work 
of  Philadelphia  and  the  vicinity,  through  which  other 
organizations  will  be  able  to  work. 

Bok's  interest  and  knowledge  in  civic  matters  had 
now  peculiarly  prepared  him  for  a  personal  adventure 
into  community  work.  Merion,  where  he  lived,  was  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  many  suburbs  that  sur- 
round the  Quaker  City;  but,  like  hundreds  of  similar 
communities,  there  had  been  developed  in  it  no  civic 
interest.  Some  of  the  most  successful  business  men  of 
Philadelphia  lived  in  Merion;  they  had  beautiful  estates, 
which  they  maintained  without  regard  to  expense,  but 
also  without  regard  to  the  community  as  a  whole.  They 
were  busy  men;  they  came  home  tired  after  a  day  in  the 
city;  they  considered  themselves  good  citizens  if  they 
kept  their  own  places  sightly,  but  the  idea  of  devoting 
their  evenings  to  the  problems  of  their  community  had 
never  occurred  to  them  before  the  evening  when  two  of 
Bok's  neighbors  called  to  ask  his  help  in  forming  a 
civic  association. 

A  canvass  of  the  sentiment  of  the  neighborhood  re- 
vealed the  unanimous  opinion  that  the  experiment,  if 
attempted,  would  be  a  failure, — an  attitude  not  by  any 
means  confined  to  the  residents  of  Merion !  Bok  de- 
cided to  test  it  out;  he  called  together  twenty  of  his 
neighbors,  put  the  suggestion  before  them  and  asked 


T 


ADVENTURES  IN  CIVICS  361 

for  two  thousand  dollars  as  a  start,  so  that  a  paid 
secretary  might  be  engaged,  since  the  men  themselves 
were  too  busy  to  attend  to  the  details  of  the  work.  The 
amount  was  immediately  subscribed,  and  in  19 13  The 
Merion  Civic  Association  applied  for  a  charter  and 
began  its  existence. 

The  leading  men  in  the  community  were  elected  as  a 
Board  of  Directors,  and  a  salaried  secretary  was  en- 
gaged to  carry  out  the  directions  of  the  Board.  The 
association  adopted  the  motto:  ''To  be  nation  right, 
and  State  right,  we  must  first  be  community  right." 
Three  objectives  were  selected  with  which  to  attract 
community  interest  and  membership:  safety  to  life,  in 
the  form  of  proper  police  protection;  safety  to  property, 
in  the  form  of  adequate  hydrant  and  fire-engine  service; 
and  safety  to  health,  in  careful  supervision  of  the  water 
and  milk  used  in  the  community. 

"The  three  S's,"  as  they  were  called,  brought  an  im- 
mediate response.  They  were  practical  in  their  appeal, 
and  members  began  to  come  in.  The  police  force  was 
increased  from  one  officer  at  night  and  none  in  the  day, 
to  three  at  night  and  two  during  the  day,  and  to  this 
the  Association  added  two  special  night  officers  of  its 
own.  Private  detectives  were  intermittently  brought 
in  to  "check  up"  and  see  that  the  service  was  vigilant. 
A  fire  hydrant  was  placed  within  seven  hundred  feet  of 
every  house,  with  the  insurance  rates  reduced  from 
twelve  and  one-half  to  thirty  per  cent;  the  services  of 
three  fire-engine  companies  was  arranged  for.  Fire- 
gongs  were  introduced  into  the  community  to  guard 
against  danger  from  interruption  of  telephone  ser\'ice. 


362   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

The  water  supply  was  chemically  analyzed  each  month 
and  the  milk  supply  carefully  scrutinized.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  new  electric-light  posts  specially  designed,  and 
pronounced  by  experts  as  the  most  beautiful  and  prac- 
tical road  lamps  ever  introduced  into  any  community, 
were  erected,  making  Merion  the  best-lighted  commu- 
nity in  its  vicinity. 

At  every  corner  was  erected  an  artistically  designed 
cast-iron  road  sign;  instead  of  the  unsightly  wooden 
ones,  cast-iron  automobile  warnings  were  placed  at  every 
dangerous  spot;  community  bulletin-boards,  preventing 
the  display  of  notices  on  trees  and  poles,  were  placed  at 
the  railroad  station;  litter- cans  were  distributed  over 
the  entire  community;  a  new  railroad  station  and  post- 
office  were  secured;  the  station  grounds  were  laid  out 
as  a  garden  by  a  landscape  architect;  new  roads  of  per- 
manent construction,  from  curb  to  curb,  were  laid  down; 
uniform  tree-planting  along  the  roads  was  introduced; 
bird-houses  were  made  and  sold,  so  as  to  attract  bird- 
life  to  the  community;  toll-gates  were  abolished  along 
the  two  main  arteries  of  travel;  the  removal  of  all 
telegraph  and  telephone  poles  was  begun;  an  efficient 
Boy  Scout  troop  was  organized,  and  an  American  Legion 
post;  the  automobile  speed  limit  was  reduced  from 
twenty-four  to  fifteen  miles  as  a  protection  to  children; 
roads  were  regularly  swept,  cleaned,  and  oiled,  and 
uniform  sidewalks  advocated  and  secured. 

Within  seven  years  so  efficiently  had  the  Association 
functioned  that  its  work  attracted  attention  far  beyond 
its  own  confines  and  that  of  Philadelphia,  and  caused 
Theodore  Roosevelt  voluntarily  to  select  it  as  a  sub- 


THE  DUTCH  GRANDFATHER 

Who  each  year  planted  trees  on  his  island  home  and  transformed  the  place  into  a  bower 
of  leafy  beauty— an  example  followed  in  America  by  Edward  Bok 


ADVENTURES  IN  CIVICS  363 

ject  for  a  special  magazine  article  in  which  he  declared 
it  to  "stand  as  a  model  in  civic  matters."  To-day  it 
may  be  conservatively  said  of  The  Merion  Civic  Associa- 
tion that  it  is  pointed  out  as  one  of  the  most  successful 
suburban  civic  efiforts  in  the  country;  as  Doctor  Lyman 
Abbott  said  in  The  Outlook,  it  has  made  "Merion  a  model 
suburb,  which  may  standardize  ideal  suburban  life,  cer- 
tainly for  Philadelphia,  possibly  for  the  United  States." 

When  the  armistice  was  signed  in  November,  1918,  the 
Association  immediately  canvassed  the  neighborhood 
to  erect  a  suitable  Tribute  House,  as  a  memorial  to  the 
eighty-three  Merion  boys  who  had  gone  into  the  Great 
War:  a  public  building  which  would  comprise  a  commu- 
nity centre,  with  an  American  Legion  Post  room,  a  Boy 
Scout  house,  an  auditorium,  and  a  meeting-place  for  the 
civic  activities  of  Merion.  A  subscription  was  raised,  and 
plans  were  already  drawn  for  the  Tribute  House,  when 
Mr,  Eldridge  R.  Johnson,  president  of  the  Victor  Talking 
Machine  Company,  one  of  the  strong  supporters  of 
The  Merion  Civic  Association,  presented  his  entire 
estate  of  twelve  acres,  the  finest  in  Merion,  to  the 
community,  and  agreed  to  build  a  Tribute  House  at  his 
own  expense.  The  grounds  represented  a  gift  of  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  the  building  a  gift  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  This  building, 
now  about  to  be  erected,  will  be  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
and  complete  community  centres  in  the  United  States. 

Perhaps  no  other  suburban  civic  effort  proves  the 
efficiency  of  community  co-operation  so  well  as  does  the 
seven  years'  work  of  The  Merion  Civic  Association.  It 
is  a  practical  demonstration  of  what  a  community  can 


364  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

do  for  itself  by  concerted  action.  It  preached,  from  the 
very  start,  the  gospel  of  united  service;  it  translated  into 
actual  practice  the  doctrine  of  being  one's  brother's 
keeper,  and  it  taught  the  invaluable  habit  of  collective 
action.  The  Association  has  no  legal  powers;  it  rules 
solely  by  persuasion;  it  accomphshes  by  the  power  of 
combination;  by  a  spirit  of  the  community  for  the  com- 
munity. 

When  The  Merion  Civic  Association  was  conceived, 
the  spirit  of  local  pride  was  seemingly  not  present  in  the 
community.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  there  as  it 
is  in  practically  every  neighborhood;  it  was  simply 
dormant;  it  had  to  be  awakened,  and  its  value  brought 
vividly  to  the  community  consciousness. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
A  BEWILDERED  BOK 

One  of  the  misfortunes  of  Edward  Bok's  training, 
which  he  realized  more  clearly  as  time  went  on,  was  that 
music  had  little  or  no  place  in  his  life.  His  mother  did 
not  play;  and  aside  from  the  fact  that  his  father  and 
mother  were  patrons  of  the  opera  during  their  residence 
in  The  Netherlands,  the  musical  atmosphere  was  lacking 
in  his  home.  He  realized  how  welcome  an  outlet  music 
might  be  in  his  now  busy  life.  So  what  he  lacked  him- 
self and  realized  as  a  distinct  omission  in  his  own  life 
he  decided  to  make  possible  for  others. 

The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  began  to  strike  a  definite 
musical  note.  It  first  caught  the  eye  and  ear  of  its 
public  by  presenting  the  popular  new  marches  by  John 
Philip  Sousa;  and  when  the  comic  opera  of  "Robin 
Hood"  became  the  favorite  of  the  day,  it  secured  all  the 
new  compositions  by  Reginald  de  Koven.  Following 
these,  it  introduced  its  readers  to  new  compositions  by 
Sir  Arthur  Sullivan,  Tosti,  Moscowski,  Richard  Strauss, 
Paderewski,  Josef  Hofmann,  Edouard  Strauss,  and  Mas- 
cagni.  Bok  induced  Josef  Hofmann  to  give  a  series  of 
piano  lessons  in  his  magazine,  and  Madame  Marchesi 
a  series  of  vocal  lessons.  The  Journal  introduced  its 
readers  to  all  the  great  instrumental  and  vocal  artists 
of  the  day  through  articles;  it  off"ered  prizes  for  the  best 
piano  and  vocal  compositions;  it  had  the  leading  critics 

3(>s 


366  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

of  New  York,  Boston,  and  Chicago  write  articles  ex- 
planatory of  orchestral  music  and  how  to  Hsten  to  music. 

Bok  was  early  attracted  by  the  abilities  of  Josef 
Hofmann.  In  1898,  he  met  the  pianist,  who  was  then 
twenty- two  years  old.  Of  his  musical  ability  Bok  could 
not  judge,  but  he  was  much  impressed  by  his  unusual 
mentahty,  and  soon  both  learned  and  felt  that  Hof- 
mann's  art  was  deeply  and  j&rmly  rooted.  Hofmann 
had  a  wider  knowledge  of  affairs  than  other  musicians 
whom  Bok  had  met;  he  had  not  narrowed  his  interests 
to  his  own  art.  He  was  striving  to  achieve  a  position 
in  his  art,  and,  finding  that  he  had  literary  ability,  Bok 
asked  him  to  write  a  reminiscent  article  on  his  famous 
master,  Rubinstein. 

This  was  followed  by  other  articles;  the  publication  of 
his  new  mazurka;  still  further  articles;  and  then,  in 
1907,  Bok  offered  him  a  regular  department  in  the 
magazine  and  a  salaried  editorship  on  his  staff. 

Bok's  musical  friends  and  the  music  critics  tried  to 
convince  the  editor  that  Hofmann's  art  lay  not  so  deep 
as  Bok  imagined;  that  he  had  been  a  child  prodigy,  and 
would  end  where  all  child  prodigies  invariably  end — 
opinions  which  make  curious  reading  now  in  view  of 
Hofmann's  commanding  position  in  the  world  of  music. 
But  while  Bok  lacked  musical  knowledge,  his  instinct 
led  him  to  adhere  to  his  belief  in  Hofmann;  and  for 
twelve  years,  until  Bok's  retirement  as  editor,  the  pian- 
ist was  a  regular  contributor  to  the  magazine.  His 
success  was,  of  course,  unquestioned.  He  answered 
hundreds  of  questions  sent  him  by  his  readers,  and  these 
answers  furnished  such  valuable  advice  for  piano  stu- 


A  BEWILDERED  BOK  367 

dents  that  two  volumes  were  made  in  book  form  and 
are  to-day  used  by  piano  teachers  and  students  as  au- 
thoritative guides. 

Meanwhile,  Bok's  marriage  had  brought  music  directly 
into  his  domestic  circle.  Mrs.  Bok  loved  music,  was  a 
pianist  herself,  and  sought  to  acquaint  her  husband 
with  what  his  former  training  had  omitted.  Hofmann 
and  Bok  had  become  strong  friends  outside  of  the  edi- 
torial relation,  and  the  pianist  frequently  visited  the 
Bok  home.  But  it  was  some  time,  even  with  these  in- 
fluences surrounding  him,  before  music  began  to  play 
any  real  part  in  Bok's  own  life. 

He  attended  the  opera  occasionally;  more  or  less  un- 
der protest,  because  of  its  length,  and  because  his  mind 
was  too  practical  for  the  indirect  operatic  form.  He 
could  not  remain  patient  at  a  recital;  the  effort  to  listen 
to  one  performer  for  an  hour  and  a  half  was  too  severe  a 
tax  upon  his  restless  nature.  The  Philadelphia  Orchestra 
gave  a  symphony  concert  each  Saturday  evening,  and 
Bok  dreaded  the  coming  of  that  evening  in  each  week 
for  fear  of  being  taken  to  hear  music  which  he  was 
convinced  was  "over  his  head." 

Like  many  men  of  his  practical  nature,  he  had  made 
up  his  mind  on  this  point  without  ever  having  heard 
such  a  concert.  The  word  "symphony"  was  enough; 
it  conveyed  to  him  a  form  of  the  highest  music  quite 
beyond  his  comprehension.  Then,  too,  in  the  back  of 
his  mind  there  was  the  feeling  that,  while  he  was  per- 
fectly willing  to  ofifer  the  best  that  the  musical  world 
afforded  in  his  magazine,  his  readers  were  primarily 
women,  and  the  appeal  of  music,  after  all,  he  felt  was 


368   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

largely,  if  not  wholly,  to  the  feminine  nature.  It  was 
very  satisfying  to  him  to  hear  his  wife  play  in  the  even- 
ing; but  when  it  came  to  public  concerts,  they  were  not 
for  his  masculine  nature.  In  other  words,  Bok  shared 
the  all  too  common  masculine  notion  that  music  is  for 
women  and  has  little  place  in  the  lives  of  men. 

One  day  Josef  Hofmann  gave  Bok  an  entirely  new 
point  of  view.  The  artist  was  rehearsing  in  Philadelphia 
for  an  appearance  with  the  orchestra,  and  the  pianist 
was  telling  Bok  and  his  wife  of  the  desire  of  Leopold 
Stokowski,  who  had  recently  become  conductor  of  the 
Philadelphia  Orchestra,  to  eliminate  encores  from  his 
symphonic  programmes;  he  wanted  to  begin  the  experi- 
ment with  Hofmann's  appearance  that  week.  This 
was  a  novel  thought  to  Bok:  why  eliminate  encores 
from  any  concert  ?  If  he  liked  the  way  any  performer 
played,  he  had  always  done  his  share  to  secure 
an  encore.  Why  should  not  the  public  have  an  encore 
if  it  desired  it,  and  why  should  a  conductor  or  a  per- 
former object?  Hofmann  explained  to  him  the  entity 
of  a  symphonic  programme;  that  it  was  made  up  with 
one  composition  in  relation  to  the  others  as  a  sympa- 
thetic unit,  and  that  an  encore  was  an  intrusion,  dis- 
turbing the  harmony  of  the  whole. 

"I  wish  you  would  let  Stokowski  come  out  and  explain 
to  you  what  he  is  trying  to  do,"  said  Hofmann.  "He 
knows  what  he  wants,  and  he  is  right  in  his  efiforts;  but 
he  doesn't  know  how  to  educate  the  public.  There  is 
where  you  could  help  him." 

But  Bok  had  no  desire  to  meet  Stokowski.  He  men- 
tally pictured   the   conductor:    long   hair;     feet   never 


A  BEWILDERED  BOK  369 

touching  the  earth;  temperament  galore;  he  knew 
them !  And  he  had  no  wish  to  introduce  the  type  into 
his  home  life. 

Mrs.  Bok,  however,  ably  seconded  Josef  Hofmann, 
and  endeavored  to  dissipate  Bok's  preconceived  notion, 
with  the  result  that  Stokowksi  came  to  the  Bok  home. 

Bok  was  not  slow  to  see  that  Stokowski  was  quite 
the  reverse  of  his  mental  picture,  and  became  intensely 
interested  in  the  youthful  conductor's  practical  way  of 
looking  at  things.  It  was  agreed  that  the  encore  "bull" 
was  to  be  taken  by  the  horns  that  week;  that  no  matter 
what  the  ovation  to  Hofmann  might  be,  however  the 
public  might  clamor,  no  encore  was  to  be  forthcoming; 
and  Bok  was  to  give  the  public  an  explanation  during 
the  following  week.  The  next  concert  was  to  present 
Mischa  Elman,  and  his  co-operation  was  assured  so 
that  continuity  of  effort  might  be  counted  upon. 

In  order  to  have  first-hand  information,  Bok  attended 
the  concert  that  Saturday  evening.  The  symphony, 
Dvorak's  "New  World  Symphony,"  amazed  Bok  by  its 
beauty;  he  was  more  astonished  that  he  could  so  easily 
grasp  any  music  in  symphonic  form.  He  was  equally 
surprised  at  the  simple  beauty  of  the  other  numbers  on 
the  programme,  and  wondered  not  a  little  at  his  own 
perfectly  absorbed  attention  during  Hofmann's  playing 
of  a  rather  long  concerto. 

The  pianist's  performance  was  so  beautiful  that  the 
audience  was  uproarious  in  its  approval;  it  had  cal- 
culated, of  course,  upon  an  encore,  and  recalled  the 
pianist  again  and  again  until  he  had  appeared  and  bowed 
his  thanks  several   times.     But   there  was  no  encore; 


370  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  stage  hands  appeared  and  moved  the  piano  to  one 
side,  and  the  audience  relapsed  into  unsatisfied  and 
rather  bewildered  silence. 

Then  followed  Bok's  publicity  work  in  the  news- 
papers, beginning  the  next  day,  exonerating  Hofmann 
and  explaining  the  situation.  The  following  week, 
with  Mischa  Elman  as  soloist,  the  audience  once  more 
tried  to  have  its  way  and  its  cherished  encore,  but  again 
none  was  forthcoming.  Once  more  the  newspapers 
explained;  the  battle  was  won,  and  the  no-encore  rule 
has  prevailed  at  the  Philadelphia  Orchestra  concerts 
from  that  day  to  this,  with  the  public  entirely  resigned 
to  the  idea  and  satisfied  with  the  reason  therefor. 

But  the  bewildered  Bok  could  not  make  out  exactly 
what  had  happened  to  his  preconceived  notion  about 
symphonic  music.  He  attended  the  following  Saturday 
evening  concert;  listened  to  a  Brahms  symphony  that 
pleased  him  even  more  than  had  "The  New  World,"  and 
when,  two  weeks  later,  he  heard  the  Tschaikowski  "Pa- 
thetique"  and  later  the  "Unfinished"  symphony,  by 
Schubert,  and  a  Beethoven  symphony,  attracted  by 
each  in  turn,  he  realized  that  his  prejudice  against  the 
whole  question  of  symphonic  music  had  been  both 
wrongly  conceived  and  baseless. 

He  now  began  to  see  the  possibility  of  a  whole  world 
of  beauty  which  up  to  that  time  had  been  closed  to 
him,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  enter  it. 
Somehow  or  other,  he  found  the  appeal  of  music  did  not 
confine  itself  to  women;  it  seemed  to  have  a  message  for 
men.  Then,  too,  instead  of  dreading  the  approach  of 
Saturday  evenings,  he  was  looking  forward  to  them,  and 


A  BEWILDERED   BOK  371 

invariably  so  arranged  his  engagements  that  they  might 
not  interfere  with  his  attendance  at  the  orchestra  con- 
certs. 

After  a  busy  week,  he  discovered  that  nothing  he  had 
ever  experienced  served  to  quiet  him  so  much  as  these 
end-of-the-week  concerts.  They  were  not  too  long, 
an  hour  and  a  half  at  the  utmost;  and,  above  all,  ex- 
cept now  and  then,  when  the  conductor  would  take  a 
flight  into  the  world  of  Bach,  he  found  he  followed  him 
with  at  least  a  moderate  degree  of  intelligence;  certainly 
with  personal  pleasure  and  inner  satisfaction. 

Bok  concluded  he  would  not  read  the  articles  he  had 
published  on  the  meaning  of  the  different  "sections"  of 
a  symphony  orchestra,  or  the  books  issued  on  that  sub- 
ject. He  would  try  to  solve  the  mechanism  of  an 
orchestra  for  himself,  and  ascertain  as  he  went  along 
the  relation  that  each  portion  bore  to  the  other.  When, 
therefore,  in  1913,  the  president  of  the  Philadelphia 
Orchestra  Association  asked  him  to  become  a  member 
of  its  Board  of  Directors,  his  acceptance  was  a  natural 
step  in  the  gradual  development  of  his  interest  in  or- 
chestral music. 

The  public  support  given  to  orchestras  now  greatly 
interested  Bok.  He  was  surprised  to  find  that  every 
symphony  orchestra  had  a  yearly  deficit.  This  he  im- 
mediately attributed  to  faulty  management;  but  on 
investigating  the  whole  question  he  learned  that  a 
symphony  orchestra  could  not  possibly  operate,  at  a 
profit  or  even  on  a  self-sustaining  basis,  because  of  its 
weekly  change  of  programme,  the  incessant  rehearsals 
required,  and  the  limited  number  of  times  it  could  actu- 


372    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

ally  play  within  a  contracted  season.  An  annual  deficit 
was  inevitable. 

He  found  that  the  Philadelphia  Orchestra  had  a  small 
but  faithful  group  of  guarantors  who  each  year  made 
good  the  deficit  in  addition  to  paying  for  its  concert 
seats.  This  did  not  seem  to  Bok  a  sound  business  plan; 
it  made  of  the  orchestra  a  necessarily  exclusive  organiza- 
tion, maintained  by  a  few;  and  it  gave  out  this  impres- 
sion to  the  general  public,  which  felt  that  it  did  not 
"belong,"  whereas  the  true  relation  of  public  and  or- 
chestra was  that  of  mutual  dependence.  Other  orches- 
tras, he  found,  as,  for  example,  the  Boston  Symphony 
and  the  New  York  Philharmonic  had  their  deficits  met 
by  one  individual  patron  in  each  case.  This,  to  Bok's 
mind,  was  an  even  worse  system,  since  it  entirely  ex- 
cluded the  public,  making  the  orchestra  dependent  on 
the  continued  interest  and  life  of  a  single  man. 

In  1916  Bok  sought  Mr.  Alexander  Van  Rensselaer, 
the  president  of  the  Philadelphia  Orchestra  Association, 
and  proposed  that  he,  himself,  should  guarantee  the 
deficit  of  the  orchestra  for  five  years,  provided  that 
during  that  period  an  endowment  fund  should  be  raised, 
contributed  by  a  large  number  of  subscribers,  and 
sufficient  in  amount  to  meet,  from  its  interest,  the  an- 
nual deficit.  It  was  agreed  that  the  donor  should  re- 
main in  strict  anonymity,  an  understanding  which  has 
been  adhered  to  until  the  present  writing. 

The  offer  from  the  "anonymous  donor,"  presented  by 
the  president,  was  accepted  by  the  Orchestra  Association. 
A  subscription  to  an  endowment  fund  was  shortly 
afterward  begun;   and  the  amount  had  been  brought  to 


A  BEWILDERED  BOK  373 

eight  hundred  thousand  dollars  when  the  Great  War 
interrupted  any  further  additions.  In  the  autumn  of 
1919,  however,  a  city- wide  campaign  for  an  addition 
of  one  million  dollars  to  the  endowment  fund  was 
launched.  The  amount  was  not  only  secured,  but  over- 
subscribed. Thus,  instead  of  a  guarantee  fund,  con- 
tributed by  thirteen  hundred  subscribers,  with  the 
necessity  for  annual  collection,  an  endowment  fund 
of  one  million  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars,  contrib- 
uted by  fourteen  thousand  subscribers,  has  been  se- 
cured; and  the  Philadelphia  Orchestra  has  been  pro- 
moted from  a  privately  maintained  organization  to  a 
public  institution  in  which  fourteen  thousand  residents 
of  Philadelphia  feel  a  proprietary  interest.  It  has 
become  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  "our  orchestra." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
HOW  MILLIONS  OF  PEOPLE  ARE  REACHED 

The  success  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Jotirnal  went 
steadily  forward.  The  circulation  had  passed  the  pre- 
viously unheard-ot  figure  for  a  monthly  magazine  of  a 
million  and  a  half  copies  per  month;  it  had  now  touched 
a  million  and  three-quarters. 

And  not  only  was  the  figure  so  high,  but  the  circula- 
tion itself  was  absolutely  free  from  "water."  The 
public  could  not  obtain  the  magazine  through  what 
are  known  as  clubbing-rates,  since  no  subscriber  was 
permitted  to  include  any  other  magazine  with  it;  years 
ago  it  had  abandoned  the  practice  of  offering  premiums 
or  consideration  of  any  kind  to  induce  subscriptions; 
and  the  newsdealers  were  not  allowed  to  return  unsold 
copies  of  the  periodical.  Hence  every  copy  was  either 
purchased  by  the  public  at  the  full  price  at  a  newsstand, 
or  subscribed  for  at  its  stated  subscription  price.  It 
was,  in  short,  an  authoritative  circulation.  And  on 
every  hand  the  question  was  being  asked:  "How  is  it 
done?     How  is  such  a  high  circulation  obtained?" 

Bok's  invariable  answer  was  that  he  gave  his  readers 
the  very  best  of  the  class  of  reading  that  he  believed 
would  interest  them,  and  that  he  spared  neither  effort 
nor  expense  to  obtain  it  for  them.  When  Mr.  Howells 
once  asked  him  how  he  classified  his  audience,  Bok  re- 
plied:   "We  appeal  to  the  intelligent  American  woman 

374 


HOW  MILLIONS  OF  PEOPLE  ARE  REACHED    375 

rather  than  to  the  intellectual  type."  And  he  gave  her 
the  best  he  could  obtain.  As  he  knew  her  to  be  fond  of 
the  personal  type  of  literature,  he  gave  her  in  succession 
Jane  Addams's  story  of  "My  Fifteen  Years  at  Hull 
House,"  and  the  remarkable  narration  of  Helen  Kel- 
ler's "Story  of  My  Life";  he  invited  Henry  Van  Dyke, 
who  had  never  been  in  the  Holy  Land,  to  go  there,  camp 
out  in  a  tent,  and  then  write  a  series  of  sketches,  "Out 
of  Doors  in  the  Holy  Land";  he  induced  Lyman  Ab- 
bott to  tell  the  story  of  "My  Fifty  Years  as  a  Minister." 
He  asked  Gene  Stratton  Porter  to  tell  of  her  bird- 
experiences  in  the  series:  "What  I  Have  Done  with 
Birds";  he  persuaded  Dean  Hodges  to  turn  from  his 
work  of  training  young  clergymen  at  the  Episcopal 
Seminary,  at  Cambridge,  and  write  one  of  the  most 
successful  series  of  Bible  stories  for  children  ever  printed; 
and  then  he  supplemented  this  feature  for  children  by 
publishing  Rudyard  Kipling's  "Just  So"  stories  and  his 
"Puck  of  Pook's  Hill."  He  induced  F.  Hopkinson 
Smith  to  tell  the  best  stories  he  had  ever  heard  in  his 
wide  travels  in  "The  Man  in  the  Arm  Chair";  he  got 
Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  to  tell  a  country  church  experience 
of  hers  in  "The  Old  Peabody  Pew";  and  Jean  Webster 
her  knowledge  of  almshouse  life  in  "Daddy  Long  Legs." 

The  readers  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  realized  that 
it  searched  the  whole  field  of  endeavor  in  literature  and 
art  to  secure  what  would  interest  them,  and  they  re- 
sponded with  their  support. 

Another  of  Bok's  methods  in  editing  was  to  do  the 
common  thing  in  an  uncommon  way.  He  had  the 
faculty   of  putting  old   wine   in   new   bottles   and   the 


376  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

public  liked  it.  His  ideas  were  not  new;  he  knew  there 
were  no  new  ideas,  but  he  presented  his  ideas  in  such 
a  way  that  they  seemed  new.  It  is  a  significant  fact, 
too,  that  a  large  public  will  respond  more  quickly  to  an 
idea  than  it  will  to  a  name. 

This  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  proved  again  and 
again.  Its  most  pronounced  successes,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  circulation,  were  those  in  which  the  idea  was 
the  sole  and  central  appeal.  For  instance,  when  it  gave 
American  women  an  opportunity  to  look  into  a  hundred 
homes  and  see  how  they  were  furnished,  it  added  a  hun- 
dred thousand  copies  to  the  circulation.  There  was 
nothing  new  in  publishing  pictures  of  rooms  and,  had 
it  merely  done  this,  it  is  questionable  whether  success 
would  have  followed  the  efifort.  It  was  the  way  in 
which  it  was  done.  The  note  struck  entered  into  the 
feminine  desire,  reflected  it,  piqued  curiosity,  and  won 
success. 

Again,  when  The  Journal  decided  to  show  good  taste 
and  bad  taste  in  furniture,  in  comparative  pictures, 
another  hundred  thousand  circulation  came  to  it. 
There  was  certainly  nothing  new  in  the  comparative 
idea;  but  applied  to  a  question  of  taste,  which  could 
not  be  explained  so  clearly  in  words,  it  seemed  new. 

Had  it  simply  presented  masterpieces  of  art  as  such, 
the  series  might  have  attracted  little  attention.  But 
when  it  announced  that  these  masterpieces  had  always 
been  kept  in  private  galleries,  and  seen  only  by  the 
favored  few;  that  the  public  had  never  been  allowed 
to  get  any  closer  to  them  than  to  read  of  the  fabulous 
prices  paid  by  their  millionaire  owners;    and  that  now 


HOW  MILLIONS  OF  PEOPLE  ARE  REACHED    377 

the  magazine  would  open  the  doors  of  those  exclusive 
galleries  and  let  the  public  in — public  curiosity  was  at 
once  piqued,  and  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
persons  who  had  never  before  bought  the  magazine  were 
added  to  the  list. 

In  not  one  of  these  instances,  nor  in  the  case  of  other 
successful  series,  did  the  appeal  to  the  public  depend 
upon  the  names  of  contributors;  there  were  none:  it 
was  the  idea  which  the  public  liked  and  to  which  it 
responded. 

The  editorial  Edward  Bok  enjoyed  this  hugely;  the 
real  Edward  Bok  did  not.  The  one  was  bottled  up  in 
the  other.  It  was  a  case  of  absolute  self-effacement. 
The  man  behind  the  editor  knew  that  if  he  followed  his 
own  personal  tastes  and  expressed  them  in  his  maga- 
zine, a  limited  audience  would  be  his  instead  of  the  enor- 
mous clientele  that  he  was  now  reaching.  It  was  the 
man  behind  the  editor  who  had  sought  expression  in 
the  idea  of  Country  Life,  the  magazine  which  his  com- 
pany sold  to  Doubleday,  Page  &  Company,  and  which 
he  would  personally  have  enjoyed  editing. 

It  was  in  19 13  that  the  real  Edward  Bok,  bottled  up 
for  twenty-five  years,  again  came  to  the  surface.  The 
majority  stockholders  of  The  Century  Magazine  wanted 
to  dispose  of  their  interest  in  the  periodical.  Over- 
tures were  made  to  The  Curtis  Publishing  Company, 
but  its  hands  were  full,  and  the  matter  was  presented 
for  Bok's  personal  consideration.  The  idea  interested 
him,  as  he  saw  in  The  Century  a  chance  for  his  self- 
expression.  He  entered  into  negotiations,  looked  care- 
fully into  the  property  itself  and  over  the  field  which 


378   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

such  a  magazine  might  fill,  decided  to  buy  it,  and  install 
an  active  editor  while  he,  as  a  close  adviser,  served  as  the 
propelling  power. 

Bok  figured  out  that  there  was  room  for  one  of  the 
trio  of  what  was,  and  still  is,  called  the  standard-sized 
magazines,  namely  Scrihner^s,  Harper^s,  and  The  Century. 
He  believed,  as  he  does  to-day,  that  any  one  of  these 
magazines  could  be  so  edited  as  to  preserve  all  its 
traditions  and  yet  be  so  ingrafted  with  the  new  pro- 
gressive, modern  spirit  as  to  dominate  the  field  and 
constitute  itself  the  leader  in  that  particular  group.  He 
believed  that  there  was  a  field  which  would  produce  a 
circulation  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  quarter  of  a  million 
copies  a  month  for  one  of  those  magazines,  so  that  it 
would  be  considered  not,  as  now,  one  of  three,  but  the 
one. 

What  Bok  saw  in  the  possibilities  of  the  standard  il- 
lustrated magazine  has  been  excellently  carried  out  by 
Mr.  Ellery  Sedgwick  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly;  every 
tradition  has  been  respected,  and  yet  the  new  progres- 
sive note  introduced  has  given  it  a  position  and  a  cir- 
culation never  before  attained  by  a  non-illustrated  maga- 
zine of  the  highest  class. 

As  Bok  studied  the  field,  his  confidence  in  the  prop- 
osition, as  he  saw  it,  grew.  For  his  own  amusement, 
he  made  up  some  six  issues  of  The  Century  as  he  visual- 
ized it,  and  saw  that  the  articles  he  had  included  were 
all  obtainable.  He  selected  a  business  manager  and 
publisher  who  would  relieve  him  of  the  manufacturing 
problems;  but  before  the  contract  was  actually  closed 
Bok,  naturally,  wanted  to  consult  Mr.  Curtis,  who  was 


HOW  MILLIONS  OF  PEOPLE  ARE  REACHED     379 

just  returning  from  abroad,  as  to  this  proposed  shar- 
ing of  his  editor. 

For  one  man  to  edit  two  magazines  inevitably  meant 
a  distribution  of  effort,  and  this  Mr.  Curtis  counselled 
against.  He  did  not  believe  that  any  man  could  success- 
fully serve  two  masters;  it  would  also  mean  a  division  of 
public  association;  it  might  result  in  Bok's  physical 
undoing,  as  already  he  was  overworked.  Mr.  Curtis's 
arguments,  of  course,  prevailed;  the  negotiations  were 
immediately  called  off,  and  for  the  second  time — for 
some  wise  reason,  undoubtedly — the  real  Edward  Bok 
was  subdued.     He  went  back  into  the  bottle ! 

A  cardinal  point  in  Edward  Bok's  code  of  editing  was 
not  to  commit  his  magazine  to  unwritten  material,  or 
to  accept  and  print  articles  or  stories  simply  because 
they  were  the  work  of  well-known  persons.  And  as  his 
acquaintance  with  authors  multiplied,  he  found  that 
the  greater  the  man  the  more  willing  he  was  that  his 
work  should  stand  or  fall  on  its  merit,  and  that  the 
editor  should  retain  his  prerogative  of  declination — if  he 
deemed  it  wise  to  exercise  it. 

Rudyard  Kipling  was,  and  is,  a  notable  example  of 
this  broad  and  just  policy.  His  work  is  never  imposed 
upon  an  editor;  it  is  invariably  submitted,  in  its  com- 
pleted form,  for  acceptance  or  declination.  "Wait 
until  it's  done,"  said  Kipling  once  to  Bok  as  he  outlined 
a  story  to  him  which  the  editor  liked,  "and  see  whether 
you  want  it.  You  can't  tell  until  then."  (What  a 
difference  from  the  type  of  author  who  insists  that  an 
editor  must  take  his  or  her  story  before  a  line  is  writ- 
ten!) 


38o   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

"I  told  Watt  to  send  you,"  he  writes  to  Bok,  "the 
first  four  of  my  child  stories  (you  see  I  hadn't  forgotten 
my  promise),  and  they  may  serve  to  amuse  you  for 
a  while  personally,  even  if  you  don't  use  them  for  publica- 
tion. Frankly,  I  don't  myself  see  how  they  can  be  used 
for  the  L.  H.  J.;  but  they're  part  of  a  scheme  of  mine 
for  trying  to  give  children  not  a  notion  of  history,  but  a 
notion  of  the  time  sense  which  is  at  the  bottom  of  all 
knowledge  of  history;  and  history,  rightly  understood, 
means  the  love  of  one's  fellow-men  and  the  land  one 
lives  in." 

James  Whitcomb  Riley  was  another  who  believed 
that  an  editor  should  have  the  privilege  of  saying  ''No" 
if  he  so  elected.  When  Riley  was  writing  a  series  of 
poems  for  Bok,  the  latter,  not  liking  a  poem  which  the 
Hoosier  poet  sent  him,  returned  it  to  him.  He  wondered 
how  Riley  would  receive  a  declination — naturally  a 
rare  experience.  But  his  immediate  answer  settled  the 
question: 

Thanks  equally  for  your  treatment  of  both  poems,  [he  wrote], 
the  one  accepted  and  the  other  returned.  Maintain  your 
own  opinions  and  respect,  and  my  vigorous  esteem  for  you 
shall  remain  "deep-rooted  in  the  fruitful  soil."  No  occasion 
for  apology  whatever.  In  my  opinion,  you  are  wrong;  in 
your  opinion,  you  are  right;  therefore,  you  are  right, — at 
least  righter  than  wronger.  It  is  seldom  that  I  drop  other 
work  for  logic,  but  when  I  do,  as  my  grandfather  was  wont  to 
sturdily  remark,  "it  is  to  some  purpose,  I  can  promise  you." 

Am  goin'  to  try  mighty  hard  to  send  you  the  dialect  work 
you've  so  long  wanted;  in  few  weeks  at  furthest.  "Patience 
and  shufHe  the  cards." 

I  am  really,  just  now,  stark  and  bare  of  one  common- 


HOW  MILLIONS  OF  PEOPLE  ARE  REACHED    381 

sense  idea.  In  the  writing  line,  I  was  never  so  involved  be- 
fore and  see  no  end  to  the  ink- (an  humorous  voluntary  pro- 
vocative, I  trust  of  much  merriment) -creasing  pressure  of 
it  all.  Even  the  hope  of  waking  to  find  myself  famous  is 
denied  me,  since  I  haven't  time  in  which  to  fall  asleep.  There- 
fore, very  drowsily  and  yawningly  indeed,  I  am  your 

James  Wiiitcomb  Riley. 

Neither  did  the  President  of  the  United  States  con- 
sider himself  above  a  possible  declination  of  his  material 
if  it  seemed  advisable  to  the  editor.  In  1916  Woodrow 
Wilson  wrote  to  Bok : 

Sometime  ago  you  kindly  intimated  to  me  that  you  would 
like  to  publish  an  article  from  me.  At  first,  it  seemed  impossi- 
ble for  me  to  undertake  anything  of  the  kind,  but  I  have  found 
a  little  interval  in  which  I  have  written  something  on  Mexico 
which  I  hope  you  will  think  worthy  of  publication.  If  not, 
will  you  return  it  to  me  ? 

The  President,  too,  acted  as  an  intermediary  in  turn- 
ing authors  in  Bok's  direction,  when  the  way  opened. 
In  a  letter  written  not  on  the  official  White  House  letter- 
head, but  on  his  personal  "up-stairs"  stationery,  as  it 
is  called,  he  asks: 

Will  you  do  me  the  favor  of  reading  the  enclosed  to  sec  if 
it  is  worthy  of  your  acceptance  for  the  Journal,  or  whether 
you  think  it  indicates  that  the  writer,  with  a  few  directions 
and  suggestions,  might  be  useful  to  you  ? 

It  was  written  by .  She  is  a  woman  of  great  refine- 
ment, of  a  very  unusually  broad  social  experience,  and  of 
many  exceptional  gifts,  who  thoroughly  knows  what  she  is 
writing  about,  whether  she  has  yet  discovered  the  best  way 
to  set  it  forth  or  not.     She  is  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  re- 


382    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

sourceful  hostesses  I  have  known,  but  has  now  fallen  upK)n 
hard  times. 

Among  other  things  that  she  really  knows,  she  really  does 
thoroughly  know  old  furniture  and  all  kinds  of  china  worth 
knowing. 

Pardon  me  if  I  have  been  guilty  of  an  indiscretion  in 
sending  this  direct  to  you.  I  am  throwing  myself  upon  your 
indulgence  in  my  desire  to  help  a  splendid  woman. 

She  has  a  great  collection  of  recipes  which  housekeepers 
would  like  to  have.  Does  a  serial  cook-book  sound  like  non- 
sense ? 

A  further  point  in  his  editing  which  Bok  always  kept 
in  view  was  his  rule  that  the  editor  must  always  be  given 
the  privilege  of  revising  or  editing  a  manuscript.  Bok's 
invariable  rule  was,  of  course,  to  submit  his  editing  for 
approval,  but  here  again  the  bigger  the  personality  back 
of  the  material,  the  more  willing  the  author  was  to  have 
his  manuscript  "blue  pencilled,"  if  he  were  convinced 
that  the  deletions  or  condensations  improved  or  at  least 
did  not  detract  from  his  arguments.  It  was  the  small 
author  who  ever  resented  the  touch  of  the  editorial 
pencil  upon  his  precious  effusions. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are  few  authors  who  cannot 
be  edited  with  advantage,  and  it  would  be  infinitely 
better  for  our  reading  if  this  truth  was  applied  to  some 
of  the  literature  of  to-day. 

Bok  had  once  under  his  hand  a  story  by  Mark  Twain, 
which  he  believed  contained  passages  that  should  be 
deleted.  They  represented  a  goodly  portion  of  the 
manuscript.  They  were,  however,  taken  out,  and  the 
result  submitted  to  the  humorist.  The  answer  was 
curious.    Twain  evidently  saw  that  Bok  was  right,  for 


HOW  MILLIONS  OF  PEOPLE  ARE  REACHED    383 

he  wrote:  "Of  course,  I  want  every  single  line  and  word 
of  it  left  out,"  and  then  added:  "Do  me  the  favor  to 
call  the  next  time  you  are  again  in  Hartford.  I  want 
to  say  things  which — well,  I  want  to  argue  with  you." 
Bok  never  knew  what  those  "things"  were,  for  at  the 
next  meeting  they  were  not  referred  to. 

It  is,  perhaps,  a  curious  coincidence  that  all  the 
Presidents  of  the  United  States  whose  work  Bok  had 
occasion  to  publish  were  uniformly  liberal  with  regard 
to  having  their  material  edited. 

Colonel  Roosevelt  was  always  ready  to  concede  im- 
provement: "Fine,"  he  wrote;  "the  changes  are  much 
for  the  better.  I  never  object  to  my  work  being  im- 
proved, where  it  needs  it,  so  long  as  the  sense  is  not 
altered." 

William  Howard  Taft  wrote,  after  being  subjected  to 
editorial  revision:  "You  have  done  very  well  by  my 
article.  You  have  made  it  much  more  readable  by  your 
rearrangement." 

Mr.  Cleveland  was  very  likely  to  let  his  interest  in  a 
subject  run  counter  to  the  space  exigencies  of  journalism ; 
and  Bok,  in  one  instance,  had  to  reduce  one  of  his  articles 
considerably.  He  explained  the  reason  and  enclosed  the 
revision. 

"I  am  entirely  willing  to  have  the  article  cut  down  as 
you  suggest,"  wrote  the  former  President.  "I  find  suf- 
ficient reason  for  this  in  the  fact  that  the  matter  you 
suggest  for  elimination  has  been  largely  exploited  lately. 
And  in  looking  the  matter  over  carefully,  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  the  article  expurgated  as  you  suggest  will 
gain  in  unity  and  directness.     At  first,  I  feared  it  would 


384   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

appear  a  little  'bobbed'  off,  but  you  are  a  much  better 
judge  of  that  than  I.  .  .  .  I  leave  it  altogether  to 
you." 

It  was  always  interesting  to  Bok,  as  a  study  of  mental 
processes,  to  note  how  differently  he  and  some  author 
with  whom  he  would  talk  it  over  would  see  the  method 
of  treating  some  theme.  He  was  discussing  the  growing 
unrest  among  American  women  with  Rudyard  Kipling 
at  the  latter's  Enghsh  home;  and  expressed  the  desire 
that  the  novelist  should  treat  the  subject  and  its  causes. 

They  talked  until  the  early  hours,  when  it  was  agreed 
that  each  should  write  out  a  plan,  suggest  the  best  treat- 
ment, and  come  together  the  next  morning.  When  they 
did  so,  Kipling  had  mapped  out  the  scenario  of  a  novel; 
Bok  had  sketched  out  the  headings  of  a  series  of  analyt- 
ical articles.  Neither  one  could  see  the  other's  view- 
point, Kipling  contending  for  the  greater  power  of  fic- 
tion and  Bok  strongly  arguing  for  the  value  of  the  direct 
essay.  In  this  instance,  the  point  was  never  settled, 
for  the  work  failed  to  materialize  in  any  form ! 

If  the  readers  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  were  quick 
to  support  its  editor  when  he  presented  an  idea  that  ap- 
pealed to  them,  they  were  equally  quick  to  teU  him  when 
he  gave  them  something  of  which  they  did  not  approve. 
An  illustration  of  this  occurred  during  the  dance-craze 
that  preceded  the  Great  War.  In  19 14,  America  was 
dance-mad,  and  the  character  of  the  dances  rapidly  grew 
more  and  more  offensive.  Bok's  readers,  by  the  hun- 
dreds, urged  him  to  come  out  against  the  tendency. 

The  editor  looked  around  and  found  that  the  country's 
terpsichorean  idols  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Vernon  Castle; 


I 

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^^  -pt. 


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HOW  MILLIONS  OF  PEOPLE  ARE  REACHED    385 

he  decided  that,  with  their  cooperation,  he  might,  by 
thus  going  to  the  fountainhead,  effect  an  improvement 
through  the  introduction,  by  the  Castles,  of  better  and 
more  decorous  new  dances.  Bok  could  see  no  reason  why 
the  people  should  not  dance,  if  they  wanted  to,  so  long 
as  they  kept  within  the  bounds  of  decency. 

He  found  the  Castles  willing  and  eager  to  cooperate, 
not  only  because  of  the  publicity  it  would  mean  for  them, 
but  because  they  were  themselves  not  in  favor  of  the  new 
mode.  They  had  little  sympathy  for  the  elimination 
of  the  graceful  dance  by  the  introduction  of  what  they 
called  the  ''shuffle"  or  the  ''bunny-hug,"  "turkey- 
trot,"  and  other  ungraceful  and  unworthy  dances. 
It  was  decided  that  the  Castles  should,  through  Bok's 
magazine  and  their  own  public  exhibitions,  revive  the 
gavotte,  the  polka,  and  finally  the  waltz.  They  would 
evolve  these  into  new  forms  and  Bok  would  present  them 
pictorially.  A  series  of  three  double-page  presentations 
was  decided  upon,  allowing  for  large  photographs  so 
that  the  steps  could  be  easily  seen  and  learned  from  the 
printed  page. 

The  magazine  containing  the  first  "lesson"  was  no 
sooner  published  than  protests  began  to  come  in  by  the 
hundreds.  Bok  had  not  stated  his  object,  and  the 
public  misconstrued  his  effort  and  purpose  into  an 
acknowledgment  that  he  had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  pre- 
vailing craze.  He  explained  in  letters,  but  to  no  pur- 
pose. Try  as  he  might,  Bok  could  not  rid  the  pages  of 
the  savor  of  the  cabaret.  He  published  the  three 
dances  as  agreed,  but  he  realized  he  had  made  a  mis- 
take, and  was  as  much  disgusted  as  were  his  readers. 


386   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Nor  did  he,  in  the  slightest  degree,  improve  the  dance 
situation.  The  public  refused  to  try  the  new  Castle 
dances,  and  kept  on  turkey-trotting  and  bunny-hugging. 

The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  followed  the  Castle  les- 
sons with  a  series  of  the  most  beautiful  dances  of  Madam 
Pavlowa,  the  Russian  dancer,  hoping  to  remove  the  un- 
favorable impression  of  the  former  series.  But  it  was 
only  partially  successful.  Bok  had  made  a  mistake  in 
recognizing  the  craze  at  all;  he  should  have  ignored  it, 
as  he  had  so  often  in  the  past  ignored  other  temporary, 
superficial  hysterics  of  the  public.  The  Journal  readers 
knew  the  magazine  had  made  a  mistake  and  frankly 
said  so. 

Which  shows  that,  even  after  having  been  for  over 
twenty-five  years  in  the  editorial  chair,  Edward  Bok 
was  by  no  means  infallible  in  his  judgment  of  what  the 
public  wanted  or  would  accept. 

No  man  is,  for  that  matter. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 
A  WAR  MAGAZINE  AND  WAR  ACTIVITIES 

When,  early  in  191 7,  events  began  so  to  shape  them- 
selves as  directly  to  point  to  the  entrance  of  the  United 
States  into  the  Great  War,  Edward  Bok  set  himself  to 
formulate  a  policy  for  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal.  He 
knew  that  he  was  in  an  almost  insurmountably  difficult 
position.  The  huge  edition  necessitated  going  to  press 
fully  six  weeks  in  advance  of  pubUcation,  and  the 
preparation  of  material  fully  four  weeks  previous  to  that. 
He  could  not,  therefore,  get  much  closer  than  ten  weeks 
to  the  date  when  his  readers  received  the  magazine. 
And  he  knew  that  events,  in  war  time,  had  a  way  of 
moving  rapidly. 

Late  in  January  he  went  to  Washington,  consulted 
those  authorities  who  could  indicate  possibilities  to  him 
better  than  any  one  else,  and  found,  as  he  had  suspected, 
that  the  entry  of  the  United  States  into  the  war  was  a 
practical  certainty;   it  was  only  a  question  of  time. 

Bok  went  South  for  a  month's  hoHday  to  get  ready  for 
the  fray,  and  in  the  saddle  and  on  the  golf  links  he  formu- 
lated a  policy.  The  newspapers  and  weeklies  would 
send  innumerable  correspondents  to  the  front,  and  ob- 
viously, with  the  necessity  for  going  to  press  so  far  in 
advance.  The  Journal  could  not  compete  with  them. 
They  would  depict  every  activity  in  the  field.  There 
was  but  one  logical  thing  for  him  to  do:  ignore  the 
"front"  entirely,  refuse  all  the  offers  of  correspondents, 

387 


388   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

men  and  women,  who  wanted  to  go  with  the  armies  for 
his  magazine,  and  cover  fully  and  practically  the  results 
of  the  war  as  they  would  afifect  the  women  left  behind. 
He  went  carefully  over  the  ground  to  see  what  these 
would  be,  along  what  particular  hnes  women's  activi- 
ties would  be  most  likely  to  go,  and  then  went  home  and 
back  to  Washington. 

It  was  now  March.  He  conferred  with  the  President, 
had  his  fears  confirmed,  and  offered  all  the  resources  of 
his  magazine  to  the  government.  His  diagnosis  of  the 
situation  was  verified  in  every  detail  by  the  authorities 
whom  he  consulted.  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  could 
best  serve  by  keeping  up  the  morale  at  home  and  by 
helping  to  meet  the  problems  that  would  confront  the 
women;  as  the  President  said:  "Give  help  in  the  second 
line  of  defense." 

A  year  before,  Bok  had  opened  a  separate  editorial 
office  in  Washington  and  had  secured  Dudley  Harmon, 
the  Washington  correspondent  for  The  New  York  Sun, 
as  his  editor-in-charge.  The  purpose  was  to  bring  the 
women  of  the  country  into  a  clearer  understanding  of 
their  government  and  a  closer  relation  with  it.  This 
work  had  been  so  successful  as  to  necessitate  a  force  of 
four  offices  and  twenty  stenographers.  Bok  now  placed 
this  Washington  office  on  a  war-basis,  bringing  it  into 
close  relation  with  every  department  of  the  govern- 
ment that  would  be  connected  with  the  war  activities. 
By  this  means,  he  had  an  editor  and  an  organized  force 
on  the  spot,  devoting  full  time  to  the  preparation  of  war 
material,  with  Mr.  Harmon  in  daily  conference  with  the 
department  chiefs  to  secure  the  newest  developments. 


A  WAR   MAGAZINE  389 

Bok  learned  that  the  country's  first  act  would  be  to 
recruit  for  the  navy,  so  as  to  get  this  branch  of  the  ser- 
vice into  a  state  of  preparedness.  He  therefore  se- 
cured Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  assistant  secretary  of  the 
navy,  to  write  an  article  explaining  to  mothers  why 
they  should  let  their  boys  volunteer  for  the  Navy  and 
what  it  would  mean  to  them. 

He  made  arrangements  at  the  American  Red  Cross 
Headquarters  for  an  official  department  to  begin  at  once 
in  the  magazine,  telling  women  the  first  steps  that  would 
be  taken  by  the  Red  Cross  and  how  they  could  help. 
He  secured  former  President  William  Howard  Taft,  as 
chairman  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Red  Cross, 
for  the  editor  of  this  department. 

He  cabled  to  Viscount  Northcliffe  and  Ian  Hay  for 
articles  showing  what  the  English  women  had  done  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  mistakes  they  had  made, 
what  errors  the  American  women  should  avoid,  the 
right  Hnes  along  which  English  women  had  worked  and 
how  their  American  sisters  could  adapt  these  methods 
to  transatlantic  conditions. 

And  so  it  happened  that  when  the  first  war  issue  of 
The  Journal  appeared  on  April  20th,  only  three  weeks 
after  the  President's  declaration,  it  was  the  only  monthly 
that  recognized  the  existence  of  war,  and  its  pages  had 
already  begun  to  indicate  practical  lines  along  which 
women  could  help. 

The  President  planned  to  bring  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  into 
the  service  by  making  it  a  war-work  body,  and  Bok  im- 
mediately made  arrangements  for  a  page  to  appear 
each  month  under  the  editorship   of  John  R.   Mott, 


390   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

general  secretary  of  the  International  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Committee. 

The  editor  had  been  told  that  the  question  of  food 
would  come  to  be  of  paramount  importance;  he  knew 
that  Herbert  Hoover  had  been  asked  to  return  to 
America  as  soon  as  he  could  close  his  work  abroad,  and 
he  cabled  over  to  his  English  representative  to  arrange 
that  the  proposed  Food  Administrator  should  know,  at 
first  hand,  of  the  magazine  and  its  possibilities  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  proposed  Food  Administration  work. 

The  Food  Administration  was  no  sooner  organized 
than  Bok  made  arrangements  for  an  authoritative  de- 
partment to  be  conducted  in  his  magazine,  reflecting 
the  plans  and  desires  of  the  Food  Administration,  and 
Herbert  Hoover's  first  pubhc  declaration  as  food  ad- 
ministrator to  the  women  of  America  was  published  in 
The  Ladies^  Home  Journal.  Bok  now  placed  all  the 
resources  of  his  four-color  press-work  at  Mr.  Hoover's 
disposal;  and  the  Food  Administration's  domestic 
experts,  in  conjunction  with  the  full  culinary  staff  of 
the  magazine,  prepared  the  new  war  dishes  and  pre- 
sented them  appetizingly  in  full  colors  under  the  per- 
sonal endorsement  of  Mr.  Hoover  and  the  Food  Adminis- 
tration. From  six  to  sixteen  articles  per  month  were 
now  coming  from  Mr.  Hoover's  department  alone. 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  was  laid  under  con- 
tribution by  the  magazine  for  the  best  ideas  for  the  rais- 
ing of  food  from  the  soil  in  the  creation  of  war-gardens. 

Doctor  Anna  Howard  Shaw  had  been  appointed 
chairman  of  the  National  Committee  of  the  Women's 
Council  of  National  Defence,   and   Bok   arranged  at 


A  WAR  MAGAZINE  391 

once  with  her  that  she  should  edit  a  department  page 
in  his  magazine,  setting  forth  the  plans  of  the  committee 
and  how  the  women  of  America  could  co-operate  there- 
with. 

The  magazine  had  thus  practically  become  the  semi- 
oflficial  mouthpiece  of  all  the  various  government  war 
bureaus  and  war-work  bodies.  James  A.  Flaherty, 
supreme  knight  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  explained 
the  proposed  work  of  that  body;  Commander  Evan- 
geline Booth  presented  the  plans  of  the  Salvation  Army, 
and  Mrs.  Robert  E.  Speer,  president  of  the  National 
Board  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association, 
reflected  the  activities  of  her  organization;  while  the 
President's  daughter.  Miss  Margaret  Wilson,  discussed 
her  work  for  the  opening  of  all  schoolhouses  as  com- 
munity war-centres. 

The  magazine  reflected  in  full-color  pictures  the  life  and 
activities  of  the  boys  in  the  American  camps,  and  Wil- 
ham  C.  Gorgas,  surgeon-general  of  the  United  States, 
was  the  spokesman  in  the  magazine  for  the  health  of  the 
boys. 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury  McAdoo  interpreted  the 
first  Liberty  Loan  ''drive"  to  the  women;  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  in  a  special  message  to  women, 
wrote  in  behalf  of  the  subsequent  Loan;  Bernard  Baruch, 
as  chairman  of  the  War  Industries  Board,  made  clear  the 
need  for  war-time  thrift;  the  recalled  ambassador  to 
Germany,  James  W.  Gerard,  told  of  the  ingenious  plans 
resorted  to  by  German  women  which  American  women 
could  profitably  copy;  and  Elizabeth,  Queen  of  the 
Belgians,  explained  the  phght  of  the  babies  and  children 


392   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

of  Belgium,  and  made  a  plea  to  the  women  of  the  maga- 
zine to  help.  So  straight  to  the  point  did  the  Queen 
write,  and  so  well  did  she  present  her  case  that  within 
six  months  there  had  been  sent  to  her,  through  The 
Ladies^  Home  Journal,  two  hundred  and  forty-eight 
thousand  cans  of  condensed  milk,  seventy-two  thousand 
cans  of  pork  and  beans,  five  thousand  cans  of  infants' 
prepared  food,  eighty  thousand  cans  of  beef  soup,  and 
nearly  four  thousand  bushels  of  wheat,  purchased  with 
the  money  donated  by  the  magazine  readers. 

On  the  coming  of  the  coal  question,  the  magazine  im- 
mediately reflected  the  findings  and  recommendations 
of  the  Fuel  Administration,  and  Doctor  H.  A.  Garfield, 
as  fuel  administrator,  placed  the  material  of  his  Bureau 
at  the  disposal  of  the  magazine's  Washington  editor. 

The  Committee  on  Public  Information  now  sought 
the  magazine  for  the  issuance  of  a  series  of  official  an- 
nouncements explanatory  of  matters  to  women. 

When  the  "meatless"  and  the  "wheatless"  days  were 
inaugurated,  the  women  of  America  found  that  the  maga- 
zine had  anticipated  their  coming;  and  the  issue  appear- 
ing on  the  first  of  these  days,  as  publicly  announced  by 
the  Food  Administration,  presented  pages  of  substitutes 
in  fuU  colors. 

Of  course,  miscellaneous  articles  on  the  war  there 
were,  without  number.  Before  the  war  was  ended,  the 
magazine  did  send  a  representative  to  the  front  in 
Catherine  Van  Dyke,  who  did  most  effective  work  for 
the  magazine  in  articles  of  a  general  nature.  The  full- 
page  battle  pictures,  painted  from  data  furnished  by 
those  who  took  actual  part,  were  universally  commended 


A  WAR  MAGAZINE  393 

and  exhausted  even  the  largest  editions  that  could  be 
printed.  A  source  of  continual  astonishment  was  the 
number  of  copies  of  the  magazine  found  among  the  boys 
in  France;  it  became  the  third  in  the  official  War  Depart- 
ment list  of  the  most  desired  American  periodicals, 
evidently  representing  a  tie  between  the  boys  and  their 
home  folks.  But  all  these  "war"  features,  while  ap- 
preciated and  desirable,  were,  after  all,  but  a  side-issue 
to  the  more  practical  economic  work  of  the  magazine. 
It  was  in  this  service  that  the  magazine  excelled,  it  was 
for  this  reason  that  the  women  at  home  so  eagerly 
bought  it,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  supply  each 
month  the  editions  called  for  by  the  extraordinary  de- 
mand. 

Considering  the  difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  due  to 
the  advance  preparation  of  material,  and  considering 
that,  at  the  best,  most  of  its  advance  information,  even 
by  the  highest  authorities,  could  only  be  in  the  nature 
of  surmise,  the  comprehensive  manner  in  which  The 
Ladies^  Home  Journal  covered  every  activity  of  women 
during  the  Great  War,  will  always  remain  one  of  the 
magazine's  most  noteworthy  achievements.  This  can 
be  said  without  reserve  here,  since  the  credit  is  due  to 
no  single  person;  it  was  the  combined,  careful  work  of 
its  entire  staff,  weighing  every  step  before  it  was  taken, 
looking  as  clearly  into  the  future  as  circumstances  made 
possible,  and  always  seeking  the  most  authoritative 
sources  of  information. 

Bok  merely  directed.  Each  month,  before  his  maga- 
zine went  to  press,  he  sought  counsel  and  vision  from  at 
least  one  of  three  of  the  highest  sources;   and  upon  this 


394   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

guidance,  as  authoritative  as  anything  could  be  in  times 
of  war  when  no  human  vision  can  actually  foretell  what 
the  next  day  will  bring  forth,  he  acted.  The  result,  as 
one  now  looks  back  upon  it,  was  truly  amazing;  an  un- 
canny timeliness  would  often  color  material  on  publica- 
tion day.  Of  course,  much  of  this  was  due  to  the  close 
government  co-operation,  so  generously  and  painstak- 
ingly given. 

With  the  establishment  of  the  various  war  boards  in 
Washington,  Bok  received  overtures  to  associate  him- 
self exclusively  with  them  and  move  to  the  capital. 
He  sought  the  best  advice  and  with  his  own  instincts 
pointing  in  the  same  way,  he  decided  that  he  could  give 
his  fullest  service  by  retaining  his  editorial  position  and 
adding  to  that  such  activities  as  his  leisure  allowed.  He 
imdertook  several  private  commissions  for  the  United 
States  Government,  and  then  he  was  elected  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Philadelphia  Belgian  Relief  Commission. 

With  the  Belgian  consul-general  for  the  United  States, 
Mr.  Paul  Hagemans,  as  the  president  of  the  Commis- 
sion, and  guided  by  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the  Bel- 
gian people,  Bok  selected  a  committee  of  the  ablest 
buyers  and  merchants  in  the  special  Unes  of  foods  which 
he  would  have  to  handle.  The  Commission  raised 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars,  with  which  it  pur- 
chased foods  and  chartered  ships.  The  quantities  of 
food  ran  into  prodigious  figures;  Bok  felt  that  he  was 
feeding  the  world;  and  yet  when  the  holds  of  the  ships 
began  to  take  in  the  thousands  of  crates  of  canned 
goods,  the  bags  of  peas  and  beans,  and  the  endless  tins 
of  condensed  milk,  it  was  amazing  how  the  piled-up 


WAR  ACTIVITIES  395 

boxes  melted  from  the  piers  and  the  ship-holds  yawned 
for  more.  Flour  was  sent  in  seemingly  endless  hundreds 
of  barrels. 

Each  hne  of  goods  was  bought  by  a  specialist  on  the 
Committee  at  the  lowest  quantity  prices;  and  the  re- 
sult was  that  the  succession  of  ships  leaving  the  port  of 
Philadelphia  was  a  credit  to  the  generosity  of  the  people 
of  the  city  and  the  commonwealth.  The  Commission 
delegated  one  of  its  members  to  go  to  Belgium  and 
personally  see  that  the  food  actually  reached  the  needy 
Belgian  people. 

In  September,  191 7,  word  was  received  from  John 
R.  Mott  that  Bok  had  been  appointed  State  chairman 
for  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  War  Work  Council  for  Pennsylvania; 
that  a  country-wide  campaign  for  twenty-five  million 
dollars  would  be  launched  six  weeks  hence,  and  that 
Pennsylvania's  quota  was  three  millions  of  dollars. 
He  was  to  set  up  an  organization  throughout  the  State, 
conduct  the  drive  from  Philadelphia,  speak  at  various 
centres  in  Pennsylvania,  and  secure  the  allocated  quota. 
Bok  knew  little  or  nothing  about  the  work  of  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.;  he  accordingly  went  to  New  York  headquarters 
and  familiarized  himself  with  the  work  being  done  and 
proposed;  and  then  began  to  set  up  his  State  machinery. 
The  drive  came  off  as  scheduled,  Pennsylvania  doubled 
its  quota,  subscribing  six  instead  of  three  millions  of 
dollars,  and  of  this  was  collected  five  milHon  eight  hun- 
dred and  twenty-nine  thousand  dollars — almost  one 
hundred  per  cent. 

Bok,  who  was  now  put  on  the  National  War  Work 
Council  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  at  New  York,  was  asked  to 


396   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

take  part  in  the  creation  of  the  machinery  necessary  for 
the  gigantic  piece  of  work  that  the  organization  had  been 
called  upon  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  do. 
It  was  a  herculean  task;  practically  impossible  with  any 
large  degree  of  efficiency  in  view  of  the  almost  insur- 
mountable obstacles  to  be  contended  with.  But  step 
by  step  the  imperfect  machinery  was  set  up,  and  it  be- 
gan to  function  in  the  home  camps.  Then  the  overseas 
work  was  introduced  by  the  first  troops  going  to  France, 
and  the  difficulties  increased  a  hundredfold. 

But  Bok's  knowledge  of  the  workings  of  the  govern- 
ment departments  at  Washington,  the  war  boards,  and 
the  other  war-work  organizations  soon  convinced  him 
that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  not  the  only  body,  asked  to  set 
up  an  organization  almost  overnight,  that  was  staggering 
under  its  load  and  falling  down  as  often  as  it  was  func- 
tioning. 

The  need  for  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretaries  overseas  and  in 
the  camps  soon  became  acute,  and  Bok  was  appointed 
chairman  of  the  Philadelphia  Recruiting  Committee. 
As  in  the  case  of  his  Belgian  relief  work,  he  at  once  sur- 
rounded himself  with  an  able  committee:  this  time 
composed  of  business  and  professional  men  trained  in  a 
knowledge  of  human  nature  in  the  large,  and  of  wide 
acquaintance  in  the  city.  Simultaneously,  Bok  secured 
the  release  of  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
service  in  New  York,  Edward  S.  Wilkinson,  who  became 
the  permanent  secretary  of  the  Philadelphia  Committee. 
Bok  organized  a  separate  committee  composed  of  auto- 
mobile manufacturers  to  recruit  for  chauffeurs  and 
mechanicians;  another  separate  committee  recruited  for 


WAR  ACTIVITIES  397 

physical  directors,  and  later  a  third  committee  recruited 
for  women. 

The  work  was  difficult  because  the  field  of  selection 
was  limited.  No  men  between  the  military  ages  could 
be  recruited;  the  War  Boards  at  Washington  had  drawn 
heavily  upon  the  best  men  of  the  city;  the  sHghtest 
physical  defect  barred  out  a  man,  on  account  of  the  ex- 
posure and  strain  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work;  the  residue 
was  not  large. 

It  was  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  so  many  in- 
competent secretaries  had  been  passed  and  sent  over 
to  France.  How  could  it  have  been  otherwise  with  the 
restricted  selection?  But  the  Philadelphia  Committee 
was  determined,  nevertheless,  that  its  men  should  be 
of  the  best,  and  it  decided  that  to  get  a  hundred  men  of 
unquestioned  ability  would  be  to  do  a  greater  job  than 
to  send  over  two  hundred  men  of  indifferent  quality. 
The  Committee  felt  that  enough  good  men  were  still  in 
Philadelphia  and  the  vicinity,  if  they  could  be  pried 
loose  from  their  business  and  home  anchorages,  and  that 
it  was  rather  a  question  of  incessant  work  than  an  im- 
possible task. 

Bok  took  large  advertising  spaces  in  the  Philadelphia 
newspapers,  asking  for  men  of  exceptional  character 
to  go  to  France  in  the  service  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. ;  and 
members  of  the  Committee  spoke  before  the  different 
commercial  bodies  at  their  noon  luncheons.  The  ap- 
plicants now  began  to  come,  and  the  Committee  began 
its  discriminating  selection.  Each  applicant  was  care- 
fully questioned  by  the  secretary  before  he  appeared  be- 
fore the  Conmiittee,  which  held  sittings  twice  a  week. 


398  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Hence  of  over  twenty-five  hundred  applicants,  only 
three  hundred  appeared  before  the  Committee,  of 
whom  two  himdred  and  fifty-eight  were  passed  and  sent 
overseas. 

The  Committee*s  work  was  exceptionally  successful; 
it  soon  proved  of  so  excellent  a  quality  as  to  elicit  a 
cabled  request  from  Paris  headquarters  to  send  more 
men  of  the  Philadelphia  type.  The  secret  of  this  lay 
in  the  sterling  personnel  of  the  Committee  itself,  and  its 
interpretation  of  the  standards  required;  and  so  well 
did  it  work  that  when  Bok  left  for  the  front  to  be  absent 
from  Philadelphia  for  ten  weeks,  his  Committee,  with 
Thomas  W.  Hulme,  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  act- 
ing as  Chairman,  did  some  of  its  best  work. 

The  after-results,  according  to  the  report  of  the  New 
York  headquarters,  showed  that  no  Y.  M.  C.  A.  recruit- 
ing committee  had  equalled  the  work  of  the  Philadelphia 
committee  in  that  its  men,  in  point  of  service,  had 
proved  one  hundred  per  cent  secretaries.  With  two 
exceptions,  the  entire  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  men 
passed,  brought  back  one  hundred  per  cent  records, 
some  of  them  having  been  placed  in  the  most  important 
posts  abroad  and  having  given  the  most  difficult  ser- 
vice. The  work  of  the  other  Philadelphia  committees, 
particularly  that  of  the  Women's  Committee,  was  equally 
good. 

To  do  away  with  the  multiplicity  of  "drives,"  rapidly 
becoming  a  drain  upon  the  efforts  of  the  men  engaged 
in  them,  a  War  Chest  Committee  was  now  formed  in 
Philadelphia  and  vicinity  to  collect  money  for  all  the 
war-work  agencies.    Bok  was  made  a  member  of  the 


WAR  ACTIVITIES  399 

Executive  Committee,  and  chairman  of  the  Publicity- 
Committee.  In  May,  1918,  a  campaign  for  twenty- 
millions  of  dollars  was  started;  the  amount  was  sub- 
scribed, and  although  much  of  it  had  to  be  collected 
after  the  armistice,  since  the  subscriptions  were  in 
twelve  monthly  payments,  a  total  of  fifteen  and  a  half 
million  dollars  was  paid  in  and  turned  over  to  the 
dififerent  agencies. 

Bok,  who  had  been  appointed  one  of  the  Boy  Scout 
commissioners  in  his  home  district  of  Merion,  saw  the 
possibilities  of  the  Boy  Scouts  in  the  Liberty  Loan  and 
other  campaigns.  Working  in  co-operation  with  the 
other  commissioners,  and  the  scoutmaster  of  the  Merion 
Troop,  Bok  supported  the  boys  in  their  work  in  each 
campaign  as  it  came  along.  Although  there  were  in  the 
troop  only  nine  boys,  in  ages  ranging  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  years — Bok's  younger  son  was  one  of  them — 
so  effectively  did  these  youngsters  work  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  scoutmaster,  Thomas  Dun  Belfield,  that 
they  soon  attracted  general  attention  and  acquired  dis- 
tinction as  one  of  the  most  efficient  troops  in  the  vicinity 
of  Philadelphia.  They  won  nearly  all  the  prizes  offered 
in  their  vicinity,  and  elicited  the  special  approval  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Although  only  "gleaners"  in  most  of  the  campaigns 
— that  is,  working  only  in  the  last  three  days  after 
the  regular  committees  had  scoured  the  neighborhood — 
these  Merion  Boy  Scouts  sold  over  one  million  four  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  in  Liberty  Bonds,  and  raised 
enough  money  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  campaign  to  erect 
one  of  the  largest  huts  in  France  for  the  army  boys,  and 


400   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  gymnasium  at  the  League  Island  Navy 
Yard  accommodating  two  thousand  sailor-boys. 

In  the  summer  of  1918,  the  eight  leading  war-work 
agencies,  excepting  the  Red  Cross,  were  merged,  for 
the  purpose  of  one  drive  for  funds,  into  the  United  War 
Work  Campaign,  and  Bok  was  made  chairman  for  Penn- 
sylvania. In  November  a  country-wide  campaign  was 
launched,  the  quota  for  Pennsylvania  being  twenty  mil- 
lions of  dollars — the  largest  amount  ever  asked  of  the 
conmionwealth.  Bok  organized  a  committee  of  the 
representative  men  of  Pennsylvania,  and  proceeded  to 
set  up  the  machinery  to  secure  the  huge  sum.  He  had 
no  sooner  done  this,  however,  than  he  had  to  sail  for 
France,  returning  only  a  month  before  the  beginning  of 
the  campaign. 

But  the  efi5cient  committee  had  done  its  work;  upon 
his  return  Bok  foimd  the  organization  complete.  On 
the  first  day  of  the  campaign,  the  false  rumor  that  an 
armistice  had  been  signed  made  the  raising  of  the  large 
amount  seem  almost  hopeless;  furthermore,  owing  to 
the  influenza  raging  throughout  the  commonwealth,  no 
public  meetings  had  been  permitted  or  held.  Still, 
despite  all  these  obstacles,  not  only  was  the  twenty 
millions  subscribed  but  oversubscribed  to  the  extent 
of  nearly  a  million  dollars;  and  in  face  of  the  fact  that 
every  penny  of  this  large  total  had  to  be  collected 
after  the  signing  of  the  armistice,  twenty  millions  of 
dollars  was  paid  in  and  turned  over  to  the  war  agen- 
cies. 

It  is  indeed  a  question  whether  any  single  war  act 
on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  redounds 


WAR  ACTIVITIES  401 

SO  highly  to  their  credit  as  this  marvellous  evidence  of 
patriotic  generosity.  It  was  one  form  of  patriotism  to 
subscribe  so  huge  a  sum  while  the  war  was  on  and  the 
guns  were  firing;  it  was  quite  another  and  a  higher  pa- 
triotism to  subscribe  and  pay  such  a  sum  after  the  war 
was  over ! 

Bok's  position  as  State  chairman  of  the  United  War 
Work  Campaign  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  follow 
authoritatively  and  closely  the  work  of  each  of  the  eight 
different  organizations  represented  in  the  fund.  Be- 
cause he  felt  he  had  to  know  what  the  Knights  of  Co- 
lumbus, the  Salvation  Army,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  and  the 
others  were  doing  with  the  money  he  had  been  instru- 
mental in  collecting,  and  for  which  he  felt,  as  chairman, 
responsible  to  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  he  learned  to 
know  their  work  just  as  thoroughly  as  he  knew  what  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  doing. 

He  had  now  seen  and  come  into  personal  knowledge 
of  the  work  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  from  his  Philadelphia 
point  of  vantage,  with  his  official  connection  with  it  at 
New  York  headquarters;  he  had  seen  the  work  as  it 
was  done  in  the  London  and  Paris  headquarters;  and 
he  had  seen  the  actual  work  in  the  American  camps,  the 
EngHsh  rest-camps,  back  of  the  French  lines,  in  the 
trenches,  and  as  near  the  firing-line  as  he  had  been  per- 
mitted to  go. 

He  had,  in  short,  seen  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  function  from 
every  angle,  but  he  had  also  seen  the  work  of  the  other 
organizations  in  England  and  France,  back  of  the  lines 
and  in  the  trenches.  He  found  them  all  faulty — neces- 
sarily so.     Each  had  endeavored  to  create  an  organiza- 


402   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

tion  within  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time  and  in  the 
face  of  adverse  circumstances.  Bok  saw  at  once  that 
the  charge  that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  "faUing  down" 
in  its  work  was  as  false  as  that  the  Salvation  Army  was 
doing  "a  marvellous  work"  and  that  the  K.  of  C.  was 
"efficient  where  others  were  incompetent,"  and  that  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  was  ''nowhere  to  be  seen." 

The  Salvation  Army  was  unquestionably  doing  an 
excellent  piece  of  work  within  a  most  limited  area;  it 
could  not  be  on  a  wider  scale,  when  one  considered  the 
limited  personnel  it  had  at  its  command.  The  work  of 
the  K.  of  C.  was  not  a  particle  more  or  less  efficient  than 
the  work  of  the  other  organizations.  What  it  did,  it 
strove  to  do  well,  but  so  did  the  others.  The  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
made  Httle  claim  about  its  work  in  France,  since  the 
United  States  Government  would  not,  until  nearly  at 
the  close  of  the  war,  allow  women  to  be  sent  over  in  the 
uniforms  of  any  of  the  war-work  organizations.  But  no 
one  can  gainsay  for  a  single  moment  the  efficient  service 
rendered  by  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  its  hostess-house  work  in 
the  Ajnerican  camps;  that  work  alone  would  have  en- 
titled it  to  the  support  of  the  American  people.  That 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  on  so  large  a  scale  that  naturally 
its  inefficiency  was  often  in  proportion  to  its  magnitude. 

Bok  was  in  France  when  the  storm  of  criticism  against 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  broke  out,  and,  as  State  chairman  for 
Pennsylvania,  it  was  his  duty  to  meet  the  outcry  when 
it  came  over  to  the  United  States.  That  the  work  of  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  faulty  no  one  can  deny.  Bok  saw  the 
"holes"  long  before  they  were  called  to  the  attention  of 
the  public,  but  he  also  saw  the  almost  impossible  task. 


WAR  ACTIVITIES  403 

in  face  of  prevailing  difficulties,  of  caulking  them  up. 
No  one  who  was  not  in  France  can  form  any  conception 
of  the  practically  insurmountable  obstacles  against  which 
all  the  war-work  organizations  worked;  and  the  larger 
the  work  the  greater  were  the  obstacles,  naturally. 
That  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  other  similar  agencies 
made  mistakes  is  not  the  wonder  so  much  as  that  they 
did  not  make  more.  The  real  marvel  is  that  they  did 
so  much  efficient  work.  For  after  we  get  a  little  farther 
away  from  the  details  and  see  the  work  of  these  agencies 
in  its  broader  aspects,  when  we  forget  the  lapses — which, 
after  all,  though  irritating  and  regrettable,  were  not 
major — the  record  as  a  whole  will  stand  as  a  most  signal 
piece  of  volunteer  service. 

What  was  actually  accomplished  was  nothing  short 
of  marvellous;  and  it  is  this  fact  that  must  be  borne 
in  mind;  not  the  omissions,  but  the  commissions.  And 
when  the  American  public  gets  that  point  of  view — as 
it  will,  and,  for  that  matter,  is  already  beginning  to 
do — the  work  of  the  American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  will  no  longer 
suffer  for  its  omissions,  but  will  amaze  and  gladden  by 
its  accomplishments.  As  an  American  officer  of  high 
rank  said  to  Bok  at  Chaumont  headquarters:  "The 
mind  cannot  take  in  what  the  war  would  have  been  with- 
out the  'Y.'"  And  that,  in  time,  will  be  the  universal 
American  opinion,  extended,  in  proportion  to  their 
work,  to  all  the  war-work  agencies  and  the  men  and 
women  who  endured,  suffered,  and  were  killed  in  their 
service. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
AT  THE  BATTLE-FRONTS  IN  THE   GREAT  WAR 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  191 8  that  Edward  Bok  re- 
ceived from  the  British  Government,  through  its  depart- 
ment of  pubUc  information,  of  which  Lord  Bea  verb  rook 
was  the  minister,  an  invitation  to  join  a  party  of  thirteen 
American  editors  to  visit  Great  Britain  and  France.  The 
British  Government,  not  versed  in  publicity  methods, 
was  anxious  that  selected  parties  of  American  publicists 
should  see,  personally,  what  Great  Britain  had  done,  and 
was  doing  in  the  war;  and  it  had  decided  to  ask  a  few 
individuals  to  pay  personal  visits  to  its  munition  fac- 
tories, its  great  aerodromes,  its  Great  Fleet,  which  then 
lay  in  the  Firth  of  Forth,  and  to  the  battle-fields.  It 
was  understood  that  no  specific  obligation  rested  upon 
any  member  of  the  party  to  write  of  what  he  saw:  he 
was  asked  simply  to  observe  and  then,  with  discretion, 
use  his  observations  for  his  own  guidance  and  informa- 
tion in  future  writing.  In  fact,  each  member  was  ex- 
plicitly told  that  much  of  what  he  would  see  could  not 
be  revealed  either  personally  or  in  print. 

The  party  embarked  in  August  amid  all  the  at- 
tendant secrecy  of  war  conditions.  The  steamer  was 
known  only  by  a  number,  although  later  it  turned  out 
to  be  the  White  Star  Hner,  Adriatic.  Preceded  by  a 
powerful  United  States  cruiser,  flanked  by  destroyers, 

guided  overhead  by  observation  balloons,  the  Adriatic 

404 


AT  THE  BATTLE-FRONTS  405 

was  found  to  be  the  first  ship  in  a  convoy  of  sixteen  other 
ships  with  thirty  thousand  United  States  troops  on 
board. 

It  was  a  veritable  Armada  that  steamed  out  of  lower 
New  York  harbor  on  that  early  August  morning,  headed 
straight  into  the  rising  sun.  But  it  was  a  voyage  of  un- 
pleasant war  reminders,  with  life-savers  carried  every 
moment  of  the  day,  with  every  light  out  at  night,  with 
every  window  and  door  as  if  hermetically  sealed  so  that 
the  stuffy  cabins  deprived  of  sleep  those  accustomed  to 
fresh  air,  with  over  sixty  army  men  and  civihans  on 
watch  at  night,  with  life-drills  each  day,  with  lessons  as 
to  behavior  in  life-boats;  and  with  a  fleet  of  eighteen 
British  destroyers  meeting  the  convoy  upon  its  approach 
to  the  Irish  Coast  after  a  thirteen  days'  voyage  of  con- 
stant anxiety.  No  one  could  say  he  travelled  across  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  in  war  days  for  pleasure,  and  no  one  did. 

Once  ashore,  the  party  began  a  series  of  inspections  of 
munition  plants,  ship-yards,  aeroplane  factories  and  of 
meetings  with  the  different  members  of  the  English  War 
Cabinet.  Luncheons  and  dinners  were  the  order  of  each 
day  until  broken  by  a  journey  to  Edinburgh  to  see  the 
amazing  Great  Fleet,  with  the  addition  of  six  of  the  fore- 
most fighting  machines  of  the  United  States  Navy,  all 
straining  hke  dogs  at  leash,  awaiting  an  expected  dash 
from  the  bottled-up  German  fleet.  It  was  a  formidable 
sight,  perhaps  never  equalled :  those  lines  of  huge,  men- 
acing, and  yet  protecting  fighting  machines  stretching 
down  the  river  for  miles,  all  conveying  the  single  thought 
of  the  power  and  extent  of  the  British  Navy  and  its 
formidable  character  as  a  fighting  unit. 


406  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

It  was  upon  his  return  to  London  that  Bok  learned, 
through  the  confidence  of  a  member  of  the  British 
"inner  circle,"  the  amazing  news  that  the  war  was  prac- 
tically over:  that  Bulgaria  had  capitulated  and  was 
suing  for  peace;  that  two  of  the  Central  Power  provinces 
had  indicated  their  strong  desire  that  the  war  should 
end;  and  that  the  first  peace  intimations  had  gone  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  All  diplomatic  eyes  were 
turned  toward  Washington.  Yet  not  a  hint  of  the  im- 
pending events  had  reached  the  public.  The  Germans 
were  being  beaten  back,  that  was  known;  it  was  evident 
that  the  morale  of  the  German  army  was  broken;  that 
Foch  had  turned  the  tide  toward  victory;  but  even  the 
best-informed  military  authorities^  outside  of  the  inner 
diplomatic  circles,  predicted  that  the  war  would  last 
until  the  spring  of  19 19,  when  a  final  "drive"  would 
end  it.  Yet,  at  that  very  moment,  the  end  of  the  war 
was  in  sight ! 

Next  Bok  went  to  France  to  visit  the  battle-fields. 
It  was  arranged  that  the  party  should  first,  under  guid- 
ance of  British  officers,  visit  back  of  the  British  lines; 
and  then,  successively,  be  turned  over  to  the  American 
and  French  Governments,  and  visit  the  operations 
back  of  their  armies. 

It  is  an  amusing  fact  that  although  each  detail  of 
officers  delegated  to  escort  the  party  "to  the  front" 
received  the  most  explicit  instructions  from  their  su- 
perior officers  to  take  the  party  only  to  the  quiet  sectors 
where  there  was  no  fighting  going  on,  each  detail  from 
the  three  governments  successively  brought  the  party 
directly  under  shell-fire,  and  each  on  the  first  day  of  the 


AT  THE  BATTLE-FRONTS  407 

"inspection."  It  was  unconsciously  done:  the  officers 
were  as  much  amazed  to  find  themselves  under  fire  as 
were  the  members  of  the  party,  except  that  the  latter 
did  not  feel  the  responsibility  to  an  equal  degree.  The 
officers,  in  each  case,  were  plainly  worried:  the  editors 
were  intensely  interested. 

They  were  depressing  trips  through  miles  and  miles  of 
devastated  villages  and  small  cities.  From  two  to  three 
days  each  were  spent  in  front-Hne  posts  on  the  Amiens- 
Bethune,  Albert-Peronne,  Bapaume-Soissons,  St.  Mihiel, 
and  back  of  the  Argonne  sectors.  Often,  the  party  was 
the  first  civilian  group  to  enter  a  town  evacuated  only  a 
week  before,  and  all  the  horrible  evidence  of  bloody  war- 
fare was  fresh  and  plain.  Bodies  of  German  soldiers  lay 
in  the  trenches  where  they  had  fallen;  wired  bombs  were 
on  every  hand,  so  that  no  object  could  be  touched  that 
lay  on  the  battle-fields;  the  streets  of  some  of  the  towns 
were  still  mined,  so  that  no  automobiles  could  enter; 
the  towns  were  deserted,  the  streets  desolate.  It  was  an 
appalling  panorama  of  the  most  frightful  results  of  war. 

The  picturesqueness  and  romance  of  the  war  of  picture 
books  were  missing.  To  stand  beside  an  English  battery 
of  thirty  guns  laying  a  barrage  as  they  fired  their  shells 
to  a  point  ten  miles  distant,  made  one  feel  as  if  one  were 
an  actual  part  of  real  warfare,  and  yet  far  removed  from 
it,  until  the  battery  was  located  from  the  enemy's 
"sausage  observation";  then  the  shells  from  the  enemy 
fired  a  return  salvo,  and  the  better  part  of  valor  was 
discretion  a  few  miles  farther  back. 

The  amazing  part  of  the  "show,"  however,  was  the 
American  doughboy.     Never  was  there  a  more  cheerful, 


4o8   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

laughing,  good-natured  set  of  boys  in  the  world;  never 
a  more  homesick,  lonely,  and  complaining  set.  But 
good  nature  predominated,  and  the  smile  was  always 
uppermost,  even  when  the  moment  looked  the  black- 
est, the  privations  were  worst,  and  the  longing  for  home 
the  deepest. 

Bok  had  been  talking  to  a  boy  who  lived  near  his  own 
home,  who  was  on  his  way  to  the  front  and  ''over  the 
top"  in  the  Argonne  mess.  Three  days  afterward,  at 
a  hospital  base  where  a  hospital  train  was  just  dis- 
charging its  load  of  wounded,  Bok  walked  among  the 
boys  as  they  lay  on  their  stretchers  on  the  railroad  plat- 
form waiting  for  bearers  to  carry  them  into  the  huts. 
As  he  approached  one  stretcher,  a  cheery  voice  called, 
''Hello,  Mr.  Bok.     Here  I  am  again." 

It  was  the  boy  he  had  left  just  seventy-two  hours  be- 
fore hearty  and  well. 

"Well,  my  boy,  you  weren't  in  it  long,  were  you?" 

"No,  sir,"  answered  the  boy;  "Fritzie  sure  got  me 
first  thing.  Hadn't  gone  a  hundred  yards  over  the  top. 
Got  a  cigarette?"  (the  invariable  question). 

Bok  handed  a  cigarette  to  the  boy,  who  then  said: 
"Mind  sticking  it  in  my  mouth ? "  Bok  did  so  and  then 
offered  him  a  light;  the  boy  continued,  all  with  his  won- 
derful smile:  "If  you  don't  mind,  would  you  just  light 
it?  You  see,  Fritzie  kept  both  of  my  hooks  as  sou- 
venirs." 

With  both  arms  amputated,  the  boy  could  still  jest 
and  smile ! 

It  was  the  same  boy  who  on  his  hospital  cot  the  next 
day  said:  "Don't  you  think  you  could  do  something  for 


AT  THE  BATTLE-FRONTS  409 

the  chap  next  to  me,  there  on  my  left  ?  He's  really  suf- 
fering: cried  like  hell  all  last  night.  It  would  be  a  God- 
send if  you  could  get  Doc  to  do  something." 

A  promise  was  given  that  the  surgeon  should  be  seen 
at  once,  but  the  boy  was  asked:  "How  about  you?" 

"Oh,"  came  the  cheerful  answer,  "I'm  all  right.  I 
haven't  anything  to  hurt.  My  wounded  members  are 
gone — ^just  plain  gone.  But  that  chap  has  got  something 
— he  got  the  real  thing !" 

What  was  the  real  thing  according  to  such  a  boy's 
idea? 

There  were  beautiful  stories  that  one  heard  "over 
there."  One  of  the  most  beautiful  acts  of  consideration 
was  told,  later,  of  a  lovable  boy  whose  throat  had  been 
practically  shot  away.  During  his  convalescence  he 
had  learned  the  art  of  making  beaded  bags.  It  kept  him 
from  talking,  the  main  prescription.  But  one  day  he 
sold  the  bag  which  he  had  first  made  to  a  visitor,  and 
with  his  face  radiant  with  glee  he  sought  the  nurse- 
mother  to  tell  her  all  about  his  good  fortune.  Of  course, 
nothing  but  a  series  of  the  most  horrible  guttural  sounds 
came  from  the  boy:  not  a  word  could  be  understood.  It 
was  his  first  venture  into  the  world  with  the  loss  of  his 
member,  and  the  nurse-mother  could  not  find  it  in  her 
heart  to  tell  the  boy  that  not  a  word  which  he  spoke  was 
understandable.  With  eyes  fuU  of  tears  she  placed  both 
of  her  hands  on  the  boy's  shoulders  and  said  to  him:  "I 
am  so  sorry,  my  boy.  I  cannot  understand  a  word  you 
say  to  me.  You  evidently  do  not  know  that  I  am  totally 
deaf.     Won't  you  write  what  you  want  to  tell  me?" 

A  look  of  deepest  compassion  swept  the  face  of  the 


4IO  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

boy.  To  think  that  one  could  be  so  afflicted,  and  yet  so 
beautifully  tender  and  always  so  radiantly  cheerful,  he 
wrote  her. 

Pathos  and  humor  followed  rapidly  one  upon  the 
other  "at  the  front"  in  those  gruesome  days,  and 
Bok  was  to  have  his  spirits  lightened  somewhat  by  an 
incident  of  the  next  day.  He  found  himself  in  one  of 
the  numerous  little  towns  where  our  doughboys  were 
billeted,  some  in  the  homes  of  the  peasants,  others  in 
stables,  bams,  outhouses,  lean-tos,  and  what  not. 
These  were  the  troops  on  their  way  to  the  front  where 
the  fighting  in  the  Argonne  Forest  was  at  that  time  go- 
ing on.  As  Bok  was  walking  with  an  American  of&cer, 
the  latter  pointed  to  a  doughboy  crossing  the  road,  fol- 
lowed by  as  disreputable  a  specimen  of  a  pig  as  he  had 
ever  seen.  Catching  Bok's  smile,  the  officer  said: 
"That's  Pinney  and  his  porker.  Where  you  see  the 
one  you  see  the  other." 

Bok  caught  up  with  the  boy,  and  said:  "Found  a 
friend,  I  see,  Buddy?" 

"I  sure  have,"  grinned  the  doughboy,  "and  it  sticks 
closer  than  a  poor  relation,  too." 

"Where  did  you  pick  it  up?" 

"Oh,  in  there,"  said  the  soldier,  pointing  to  a  di- 
lapidated barn. 

"Why  in  there?" 

"My  home,"  grinned  the  boy. 

"Let  me  see,"  said  Bok,  and  the  doughboy  took  him 
in  with  the  pig  following  close  behind.  "Billeted  here — 
been  here  six  days.  The  pig  was  here  when  we  came, 
and  the  first  night  I  lay  down  and  slept,  it  came  up  to 


AT  THE  BATTLE-FRONTS  411 

me  and  stuck  its  snout  in  my  face  and  woke  me  up. 
Kind  enough,  all  right,  but  not  very  comfortable:  it 
stinks  so." 

"Yes;  it  certainly  does.     What  did  you  do ? " 

"Oh,  I  got  some  grub  I  had  and  gave  it  to  eat: 
thought  it  might  be  hungry,  you  know.  I  guess  that 
sort  of  settled  it,  for  the  next  night  it  came  again  and 
stuck  its  snout  right  in  my  mug.  I  turned  around,  but 
it  just  climbed  over  me  and  there  it  was." 

"Well,  what  did  you  do  then?     Chase  it  out?" 

"Chase  it  out?"  said  the  doughboy,  looking  into  Bok's 
face  with  the  most  unaffected  astonishment.  "Why, 
mister,  that's  a  mother-pig,  that  is.  She's  going  to  have 
young  ones  in  a  few  days.  How  could  I  chase  her 
out?" 

"You're  quite  right,  Buddy,"  said  Bok.  "You 
couldn't  do  that." 

"Oh,  no,"  said  the  boy.  "The  worst  of  it  is,  what  am 
I  going  to  do  with  her  when  we  move  up  within  a  day  or 
two?  I  can't  take  her  along  to  the  front,  and  I  hate  to 
leave  her  here.     Some  one  might  treat  her  rough." 

"Captain,"  said  Bok,  hailing  the  officer,  "you  can 
attend  to  that,  can't  you,  when  the  time  comes?" 

"I  sure  can,  and  I  sure  will,"  answered  the  Captain. 
And  with  a  quick  salute,  Pinney  and  his  porker  went  off 
across  the  road ! 

Bok  was  standing  talking  to  the  commandant  of  one 
of  the  great  French  army  supply  depots  one  morning. 
He  was  a  man  of  forty;  a  colonel  in  the  regular  French 
army.  An  erect,  sturdy-looking  man  with  white  hair 
and  mustache,  and  who  wore  the  single  star  of  a  subal- 


412    THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

tern  on  his  sleeve,  came  up,  saluted,  delivered  a  message, 
and  then  asked: 

"Are  there  any  more  orders,  sir?" 

"No,"  was  the  reply. 

He  brought  his  heels  together  with  a  click,  saluted 
again,  and  went  away. 

The  commandant  turned  to  Bok  with  a  peculiar  smile 
on  his  face  and  asked: 

"Do  you  know  who  that  man  is?" 

"No,"  was  the  reply. 

"That  is  my  father,"  was  the  answer. 

The  father  was  then  exactly  seventy-two  years  old. 
He  was  a  retired  business  man  when  the  war  broke  out. 
After  two  years  of  the  heroic  struggle  he  decided  that 
he  couldn't  keep  out  of  it.  He  was  too  old  to  fight,  but 
after  long  insistence  he  secured  a  commission.  By  one 
of  the  many  curious  coincidences  of  the  war  he  was 
assigned  to  serve  under  his  own  son. 

When  under  the  most  trying  conditions,  the  Ameri- 
cans never  lost  their  sense  of  fun.  On  the  staff  of  a 
prison  hospital  in  Germany,  where  a  number  of  captured 
American  soldiers  were  being  treated,  a  German  ser- 
geant became  quite  friendly  with  the  prisoners  under 
his  care.  One  day  he  told  them  that  he  had  been  ordered 
to  active  service  on  the  front.  He  felt  convinced  that 
he  would  be  captured  by  the  English,  and  asked  the 
Americans  if  they  would  not  give  him  some  sort  of  testi- 
monial which  he  could  show  if  he  were  taken  prisoner, 
so  that  he  would  not  be  ill-treated. 

The  Americans  were  much  amused  at  this  idea,  and 
concocted  a  note  of  introduction,  written  in  English. 
The  German  sergeant  knew  no  English  and  could  not 


AT  THE  BATTLE-FRONTS  413 

understand  his  testimonial,  but  he  tucked  it  in  his 
pocket,  well  satisfied. 

In  due  time,  he  was  sent  to  the  front  and  was  captured 
by  "the  ladies  from  hell,"  as  the  Germans  called  the 
Scotch  kilties.  He  at  once  presented  his  introduction, 
and  his  captors  laughed  heartily  when  they  read : 

"This  is   L .     He   is  not  a   bad   sort   of   chap. 

Don't  shoot  him;  torture  him  slowly  to  death." 

One  evening  as  Bok  was  strolling  out  after  dinner  a 
Red  Cross  nurse  came  to  him,  explained  that  she  had 
two  severely  wounded  boys  in  what  remained  of  an  old 
hut:  that  they  were  both  from  Pennsylvania,  and  had 
expressed  a  great  desire  to  see  him  as  a  resident  of  their 
State. 

"Neither  can  possibly  survive  the  night,"  said  the 
nurse. 

"They  know  that?"  asked  Bok. 

"Oh,  yes,  but  like  all  our  boys  they  are  lying  there 
joking  with  each  other." 

Bok  was  taken  into  what  remained  of  a  room  in  a 
badly  shelled  farmhouse,  and  there,  on  two  roughly 
constructed  cots,  lay  the  two  boys.  Their  faces  had 
been  bandaged  so  that  nothing  was  visible  except  the 
eyes  of  each  boy.  A  candle  in  a  bottle  standing  on  a 
box  gave  out  the  only  light.  But  the  eyes  of  the  boys 
were  smiling  as  Bok  came  in  and  sat  down  on  the  box 
on  which  the  nurse  had  been  sitting.  He  talked  with 
the  boys,  got  as  much  of  their  stories  from  them  as  he 
could,  and  told  them  such  home  news  as  he  thought 
might  interest  them. 

After  half  an  hour  he  arose  to  leave,  when  the  nurse 
said:    "There  is  no  one  here,  Mr.  Bok,  to  say  the  last 


414   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

words  to  these  boys.  Will  you  do  it?"  Bok  stood 
transfixed.  In  sending  men  over  in  the  service  of  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  he  had  several  times  told  them  to  be  ready 
for  any  act  that  they  might  be  asked  to  render,  even  the 
most  sacred  one.  And  here  he  stood  himself  before  that 
duty.  He  felt  as  if  he  stood  stripped  before  his  Maker. 
Through  the  glassless  window  the  sky  Ut  up  constantly 
with  the  flashes  of  the  guns,  and  then  followed  the  boom- 
ing of  a  shell  as  it  landed. 

"Yes,  won't  you,  sir?"  asked  the  boy  on  the  right  cot 
as  he  held  out  his  hand.  Bok  took  it,  and  then  the 
hand  of  the  other  boy  reached  out. 

What  to  say,  he  did  not  know.  Then,  to  his  surprise, 
he  heard  himself  repeating  extract  after  extract  from  a 
book  by  Lyman  Abbott  called  The  Other  Room,  a  mes- 
sage to  the  bereaved  declaring  the  non-existence  of 
death,  but  that  we  merely  move  from  this  earth  to 
another:  from  one  room  to  another,  as  it  were.  Bok 
had  not  read  the  book  for  years,  but  here  was  the  sub- 
conscious seK  supplying  the  material  for  him  in  his 
moment  of  greatest  need.  Then  he  remembered  that 
just  before  leaving  home  he  had  heard  sung  at  matins, 
after  the  prayer  for  the  President,  a  beautiful  song  called 
''Passing  Souls."  He  had  asked  the  rector  for  a  copy 
of  it;  and,  wondering  why,  he  had  put  it  in  his  wallet 
that  he  carried  with  him.  He  took  it  out  now  and 
holding  the  hand  of  the  boy  at  his  right,  he  read  to  them : 

For  the  passing  souls  we  pray, 
Saviour,  meet  them  on  their  way; 
Let  their  trust  lay  hold  on  Thee 
Ere  they  touch  eternity. 


AT  THE  BATTLE-FRONTS  4^5 

Holy  counsels  long  forgot 
Breathe  again  'mid  shell  and  shot; 
Through  the  mist  of  Ufe's  last  pain 
None  shall  look  to  Thee  in  vain. 

To  the  hearts  that  know  Thee,  Lord, 
Thou  wilt  speak  through  flood  or  sword; 
Just  beyond  the  cannon's  roar, 
Thou  art  on  the  farther  shore. 

For  the  passing  souls  we  pray, 
Saviour,  meet  them  on  the  way; 
Thou  wilt  hear  our  yearning  call, 
Who  hast  loved  and  died  for  all. 

Absolute  stillness  reigned  in  the  room  save  for  the 
half -suppressed  sob  from  the  nurse  and  the  distant  boom- 
ing of  the  cannon.  As  Bok  finished,  he  heard  the  boy 
at  his  right  say  slowly:  ''Saviour — meet — me — on — my 
— way  " :  with  a  little  emphasis  on  the  word  ''my."  The 
hand  in  his  relaxed  slowly,  and  then  fell  on  the  cot; 
and  he  saw  that  the  soul  of  another  brave  American 
boy  had  "gone  West." 

Bok  glanced  at  the  other  boy,  reached  for  his  hand, 
shook  it,  and  looking  deep  into  his  eyes,  he  left  the  little 
hut. 

He  little  knew  where  and  how  he  was  to  look  into 
those  eyes  again ! 

Feeling  the  need  of  air  in  order  to  get  hold  of  himself 
after  one  of  the  most  solemn  moments  of  his  visit  to 
the  front,  Bok  strolled  out,  and  soon  found  himself  on 
what  only  a  few  days  before  had  been  a  field  of  carnage 


41 6  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

where  the  American  boys  had  driven  back  the  Ger- 
mans. Walking  in  the  trenches  and  looking  out,  in  the 
clear  moonlight,  over  the  field  of  desolation  and  ruin, 
and  thinking  of  the  inferno  that  had  been  enacted  there 
only  so  recently,  he  suddenly  felt  his  foot  rest  on  what 
seemed  to  be  a  soft  object.  Taking  his  "ever-ready" 
flash  from  his  pocket,  he  shot  a  ray  at  his  feet,  only  to 
realize  that  his  foot  was  resting  on  the  face  of  a  dead 
German ! 

Bok  had  had  enough  for  one  evening !    In  fact,  he 

had  had  enough  of  war  in  aU  its  aspects;   and  he  felt  a 

/sigh  of  relief  when,  a  few  days  thereafter,  he  boarded 

The   Empress   of  Asia  for   home,    after   a    ten-weeks 

absence. 

He  hoped  never  again  to  see,  at  first  hand,  what  war 
meant ! 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 
THE  END  OF  THIRTY  YEARS'  EDITORSHIP 

On  the  voyage  home,  Edward  Bok  decided  that,  now 
the  war  was  over,  he  would  ask  his  company  to  release 
him  from  the  editorship  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal. 
His  original  plan  had  been  to  retire  at  the  end  of  a  quarter 
of  a  century  of  editorship,  when  in  his  fiftieth  year.  He 
was,  therefore,  six  years  behind  his  schedule.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1 919,  he  would  reach  his  thirtieth  anniversary  as 
editor,  and  he  fixed  upon  this  as  an  appropriate  time  for 
the  relinquishment  of  his  duties. 

He  felt  he  had  carried  out  the  conditions  under  which 
the  editorship  of  the  magazine  had  been  transferred  to 
him  by  Mrs.  Curtis,  that  he  had  brought  them  to  fru- 
ition, and  that  any  further  carrying  on  of  the  periodical 
by  him  would  be  of  a  supplementary  character.  He 
had,  too,  realized  his  hope  of  helping  to  create  a  national 
institution  of  service  to  the  American  woman,  and  he  felt 
that  his  part  in  the  work  was  done. 

He  considered  carefully  where  he  would  leave  an  in- 
stitution which  the  public  had  so  thoroughly  associated 
with  his  personality,  and  he  felt  that  at  no  point  in  its 
history  could  he  so  safely  transfer  it  to  other  hands. 
The  position  of  the  magazine  in  the  public  estimation  was 
unquestioned;  it  had  never  been  so  strong.  Its  circu- 
lation not  only  had  outstripped  that  of  any  other  monthly 
periodical,  but  it  was  still  growing  so  rapidly  that  it 

417 


4i8   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

was  only  a  question  of  a  few  months  when  it  would  reach 
the  almost  incredible  mark  of  two  million  copies  per 
month.  With  its  advertising  patronage  exceeding  that 
of  any  other  monthly,  the  periodical  had  become,  proba- 
bly, the  most  valuable  and  profitable  piece  of  magazine 
property  in  the  world. 

The  time  might  never  come  again  when  all  conditions 
would  be  equally  favorable  to  a  change  of  editorship. 
The  position  of  the  magazine  was  so  thoroughly  assured 
that  its  progress  could  hardly  be  affected  by  the  retire- 
ment of  one  editor,  and  the  accession  of  another.  There 
was  a  competent  editorial  staff,  the  members  of  which 
had  been  with  the  periodical  from  ten  to  thirty  years 
each.  This  staff  had  been  a  very  large  factor  in  the 
success  of  the  magazine.  While  Bok  had  furnished  the 
initiative  and  supplied  the  directing  power,  a  large  part 
of  the  editorial  success  of  the  magazine  was  due  to  the 
staff.  It  could  carry  on  the  magazine  without  his 
guidance. 

Moreover,  Bok  wished  to  say  good-bye  to  his  public 
before  it  decided,  for  some  reason  or  other,  to  say  good- 
bye to  him.  He  had  no  desire  to  outstay  his  welcome. 
That  public  had  been  wonderfully  indulgent  toward  his 
shortcomings,  lenient  with  his  errors,  and  tremendously 
inspiring  to  his  best  endeavor.  He  would  not  ask  too 
much  of  it.  Thirty  years  was  a  long  tenure  of  office,  one 
of  the  longest,  in  point  of  consecutively  active  editor- 
ship, in  the  history  of  American  magazines. 

He  had  helped  to  create  and  to  put  into  the  life  of 
the  American  home  a  magazine  of  peculiar  distinction. 
From  its  beginning  it  had  been  unlike  any  other  periodi- 


THE  END  OF  THIRTY  YEARS'  EDITORSHIP    419 

cal;  it  had  always  retained  its  individuality  as  a  maga- 
zine apart  from  the  others.  It  had  sought  to  be  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  assemblage  of  stories  and  articles. 
It  had  consistently  stood  for  ideals;  and,  save  in  one  or 
two  instances,  it  had  carried  through  what  it  undertook 
to  achieve.  It  had  a  record  of  worthy  accomplishment; 
a  more  fruitful  record  than  many  imagined.  It  had  be- 
come a  national  institution  such  as  no  other  magazine 
had  ever  been.  It  was  indisputably  accepted  by  the 
public  and  by  business  interests  alike  as  the  recognized 
avenue  of  approach  to  the  intelligent  homes  of  America. 

Edward  Bok  was  content  to  leave  it  at  this  point. 

He  explained  all  this  in  December,  19 18,  to  the  Board 
of  Directors,  and  asked  that  his  resignation  be  con- 
sidered. It  was  understood  that  he  was  to  serve  out  his 
thirty  years,  thus  remaining  with  the  magazine  for  the 
best  part  of  another  year. 

In  the  material  which  The  Journal  now  included  in  its 
contents,  it  began  to  point  the  way  to  the  problems  which 
would  face  women  during  the  reconstruction  period. 
Bok  scanned  the  rather  crowded  field  of  thought  very 
carefully,  and  selected  for  discussion  in  the  magazine 
such  questions  as  seemed  to  him  most  important  for  the 
public  to  understand  in  ordei  to  face  and  solve  its  im- 
pending problems.  The  outstanding  question  he  saw 
which  would  immediately  face  men  and  women  of  the 
country  was  the  problem  of  Americanization.  The 
war  and  its  after-effects  had  clearly  demonstrated  this 
to  be  the  most  vital  need  in  the  life  of  the  nation, 
not  only  for  the  foreign-born  but  for  the  American  as 
well. 


420  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

The  more  one  studied  the  problem  the  clearer  it  be- 
came that  the  vast  majority  of  American-bom  needed 
a  refreshing,  and,  in  many  cases,  a  new  conception  of 
American  ideals  as  much  as  did  the  foreign-born,  and 
that  the  latter  could  never  be  taught  what  America  and 
its  institutions  stood  for  until  they  were  more  clearly 
defined  in  the  mind  of  the  men  and  women  of  American 
birth. 

Bok  went  to  Washington,  consulted  with  Franklin 
K.  Lane,  secretary  of  the  interior,  of  whose  department 
the  Government  Bureau  of  Americanization  was  a  part. 
A  comprehensive  series  of  articles  was  outlined;  the  most 
expert  writer,  Esther  Everett  Lape,  who  had  several 
years  of  actual  experience  in  Americanization  work,  was 
selected;  Secretary  Lane  agreed  personally  to  read  and 
pass  upon  the  material,  and  to  assume  the  responsibility 
for  its  publication. 

With  the  full  and  direct  co-operation  of  the  Federal 
Bureau  of  Americanization,  the  material  was  assembled 
and  worked  up  with  the  result  that,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  director  of  the  Federal  Bureau,  the  series  proved  to 
be  the  most  comprehensive  exposition  of  practical  Ameri- 
canization adapted  to  city,  town,  and  village,  thus  far 
published. 

The  work  on  this  series  was  one  of  the  last  acts  of 
Edward  Bok's  editorship;  and  it  was  peculiarly  grati- 
fying to  him  that  his  editorial  work  should  end  with  the 
exposition  of  that  Americanization  of  which  he  himself 
was  a  product.  It  seemed  a  fitting  close  to  the  career 
of  a  foreign-born  Americanized  editor. 

The  scope  of   the  reconstruction  articles  now  pub- 


THE  END  OF  THIRTY  YEARS'  EDITORSHIP    421 

lished,  and  the  clarity  of  vision  shown  in  the  selection 
of  the  subjects,  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the  circulation 
of  the  magazine;  and  now  that  the  government's  em- 
bargo on  the  use  of  paper  had  been  removed,  the  full 
editions  of  the  periodical  could  again  be  printed.  The 
public  responded  instantly. 

The  result  reached  phenomenal  figures.  The  last 
number  under  Bok's  full  editorial  control  was  the 
issue  of  October,  1919.  This  number  was  oversold  with 
a  printed  edition  of  two  million  copies — a  record  never 
before  achieved  by  any  magazine.  This  same  issue 
presented  another  record  unattained  in  any  single  num- 
ber of  any  periodical  in  the  world.  It  carried  between 
its  covers  the  amazing  total  of  over  one  miUion  dollars  in 
advertisements. 

This  was  the  psychological  point  at  which  to  stop. 
And  Edward  Bok  did.  Although  his  official  relation  as 
editor  did  not  terminate  untU  January,  1920,  when  the 
number  which  contained  his  valedictory  editorial  was 
issued,  his  actual  editorship  ceased  on  September  22, 
1 91 9.  On  that  day  he  handed  over  the  reins  to  his  suc- 
cessor. 

As  Bok  was,  on  that  day,  about  to  leave  his  desk 
for  the  last  time,  it  was  announced  that  a  young  soldier 
whom  he  "had  met  and  befriended  in  France"  was 
waiting  to  see  him.  When  the  soldier  walked  into 
the  ofiice  he  was  to  Bok  only  one  of  the  many  whom  he 
had  met  on  the  other  side.  But  as  the  boy  shook  hands 
with  him  and  said:  "I  guess  you  do  not  remember 
me,  Mr.  Bok,"  there  was  something  in  the  eyes  into 
which  he  looked  that  startled  him.     And  then,  in  a 


422   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

flash,  the  circumstances  under  which  he  had  last  seen 
those  eyes  came  to  him. 

"Good  heavens,  my  boy,  you  are  not  one  of  those  two 
boys  in  the  little  hut  that  I " 

"To  whom  you  read  the  poem  'Passing  Souls,' 
that  evening.  Yes,  sir,  I'm  the  boy  who  had  hold  of 
your  left  hand.  My  bunkie,  Ben,  went  West  that  same 
evening,  you  remember." 

"Yes,"  replied  the  editor,  "I  remember;  I  remember 
only  too  well,"  and  again  Bok  felt  the  hand  in  his  relax, 
drop  from  his  own,  and  heard  the  words:  "Saviour — 
meet — me — on — my  way." 

The  boy's  voice  brought  Bok  back  to  the  moment. 

"It's  wonderful  you  should  remember  me;  my  face 
was  all  bound  up — I  guess  you  couldn't  see  anything 
but  my  eyes." 

"Just  the  eyes,  that's  right,"  said  Bok.  "But  they 
burned  into  me  all  right,  my  boy." 

"I  don't  think  I  get  you,  sir,"  said  the  boy. 

"No,  you  wouldn't,"  Bok  rephed.  "You  couldn't, 
boy,  not  until  you're  older.  But,  tell  me,  how  in  the 
world  did  you  ever  get  out  of  it?" 

"Well,  sir,"  answered  the  boy,  with  that  shyness 
which  we  all  have  come  to  know  in  the  boys  who  actu- 
ally did,  "I  guess  it  was  a  close  call,  all  right.  But 
just  as  you  left  us,  a  hospital  corps  happened  to  come 
along  on  its  way  to  the  back  and  Miss  Nelson — the 
nurse,  you  remember? — she  asked  them  to  take  me  along. 
They  took  me  to  a  wonderful  hospital,  gave  me  fine 
care,  and  then  after  a  few  weeks  they  sent  me  back  to 
the  States,  and  I've  been  in  a  hospital  over  here  ever 


THE  END  OF  THIRTY  YEARS'  EDITORSHIP    423 

since.  Now,  except  for  this  thickness  of  my  voice  that 
you  notice,  which  Doc  says  will  be  all  right  soon,  I'm 
fit  again.  The  government  has  given  me  a  job,  and  I 
came  here  on  leave  just  to  see  my  parents  up-State,  and 
I  thought  I'd  like  you  to  know  that  I  didn't  go  West 
after  all." 

Fifteen  minutes  later,  Edward  Bok  left  his  editorial 
office  for  the  last  time. 

But  as  he  went  home  his  thoughts  were  not  of  his  last 
day  at  the  office,  nor  of  his  last  acts  as  editor,  but  of  his 
last  caller — the  soldier-boy  whom  he  had  left  seemingly 
so  surely  on  his  way  "West,"  and  whose  eyes  had  burned 
into  his  memory  on  that  fearful  night  a  year  before ! 

Strange  that  this  boy  should  have  been  his  last  visitor ! 

As  John  Drinkwater,  in  his  play,  makes  Abraham 
Lincoln  say  to  General  Grant: 

''It's  a  queer  world !" 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 
THE  THIRD  PERIOD 

The  announcement  of  Edward  Bok's  retirement  came 
as  a  great  surprise  to  his  friends.  Save  for  one  here  and 
there,  who  had  a  clearer  vision,  the  feeHng  was  general 
that  he  had  made  a  mistake.  He  was  fifty-six,  in  the 
prime  of  Ufe,  never  in  better  health,  with  "success  ly- 
ing easily  upon  him" — said  one;  "at  the  very  summit 
of  his  career,"  said  another — and  aU  agreed  it  was 
"queer,"  "strange," — unless,  they  argued,  he  was  really 
ill.  Even  the  most  acute  students  of  human  ajffairs 
among  his  friends  wondered.  It  seemed  incomprehensi- 
ble that  any  man  should  want  to  give  up  before  he  was, 
for  some  reason,  compelled  to  do  so.  A  man  should  go 
on  until  he  "dropped  in  the  harness,"  they  argued. 

Bok  agreed  that  any  man  had  a  perfect  right  to  work 
until  he  did  "drop  in  the  harness."  But,  he  argued, 
if  he  conceded  this  right  to  others,  why  should  they  not 
concede  to  him  the  privilege  of  dropping  with  the 
blinders  off? 

"But,"  continued  the  argument,  "a  man  degenerates 
when  he  retires  from  active  affairs."  And  then,  in- 
stances were  pointed  out  as  notable  examples.  "A 
year  of  retirement  and  he  was  through,"  was  the  picture 
given  of  one  retired  man.  "In  two  years,  he  was  glad 
to  come  back,"  and  so  the  examples  ran  on.  "No  big 
man  ever  retired  from  active  business  and  did  great  work 

afterwards,"  Bok  was  told. 

424 


THE  THIRD   PERIOD  425 

"No?"  he  answered.  "Not  even  Cyrus  W.  Field 
or  Herbert  Hoover?" 

And  all  this  time  Edward  Bok's  failure  to  be  entirely 
Americanized  was  brought  home  to  his  consciousness. 
After  fifty  years,  he  was  still  not  an  American  !  He  had 
deliberately  planned,  and  then  had  carried  out  his  plan, 
to  retire  while  he  still  had  the  mental  and  physical  ca- 
pacity to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  years  of  labor !  For  for- 
eign to  the  American  way  of  thinking  it  certainly  was: 
the  protestations  and  arguments  of  his  friends  proved 
that  to  him.  After  all,  he  was  still  Dutch;  he  had  held 
on  to  the  lesson  which  his  people  had  learned  years  ago; 
that  the  people  of  other  European  countries  had  learned ; 
that  the  English  had  discovered:  that  the  Great  Ad- 
venture of  Life  was  something  more  than  material  work, 
and  that  the  time  to  go  is  while  the  going  is  good  ! 

For  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  pathetic  picture  we 
so  often  see  is  found  in  American  business  life  more  fre- 
quently than  in  that  of  any  other  land:  men  unable  to 
let  go — not  only  for  their  own  good,  but  to  give  the 
younger  men  behind  them  an  opportunity.  Not  that 
a  man  should  stop  work,  for  man  was  born  to  work, 
and  in  work  he  should  find  his  greatest  refreshment. 
But  so  often  it  does  not  occur  to  the  man  in  a  pivotal 
position  to  question  the  possibility  that  at  sixty  or  sev- 
enty he  can  keep  steadily  in  touch  with  a  generation 
whose  ideas  are  controlled  by  men  twenty  years  younger. 
Unconsciously  he  hangs  on  beyond  his  greatest  useful- 
ness and  efficiency:  he  convinces  himself  that  he  is  in- 
dispensable to  his  business,  while,  in  scores  of  cases,  the 
business  would  be  distinctly  benefited  by  his  retirement 


426   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

and  the  consequent  coming  to  the  front  of  the  younger 
blood. 

Such  a  man  in  a  position  of  importance  seems  often 
not  to  see  that  he  has  it  within  his  power  to  advance 
the  fortunes  of  younger  men  by  stepping  out  when  he 
has  served  his  time,  while  by  refusing  to  let  go  he  often 
works  dire  injustice  and  even  disaster  to  his  younger 
associates. 

The  sad  fact  is  that  in  all  too  many  instances  the 
average  American  business  man  is  actually  afraid  to  let 
go  because  he  realizes  that  out  of  business  he  should 
not  know  what  to  do.  For  years  he  has  so  excluded 
all  other  interests  that  at  fifty  or  sixty  or  seventy  he 
finds  himself  a  slave  to  his  business,  with  positively  no 
inner  resources.  Retirement  from  the  one  thing  he  does 
know  would  naturally  leave  such  a  man  useless  to  him- 
self and  his  family,  and  his  community :  worse  than  use- 
less, as  a  matter  of  fact,  for  he  would  become  a  burden 
to  himself,  a  nuisance  to  his  family,  and,  when  he  would 
begin  to  write  "letters"  to  the  newspapers,  a  bore  to 
the  community. 

It  is  significant  that  a  European  or  English  business 
man  rarely  reaches  middle  age  devoid  of  acquaintance 
with  other  matters;  he  always  lets  the  breezes  from 
other  worlds  of  thought  blow  through  his  ideas,  with  the 
result  that  when  he  is  ready  to  retire  from  business  he 
has  other  interests  to  fall  back  upon.  Fortunately  it  is 
becoming  less  uncommon  for  American  men  to  retire 
from  business  and  devote  themselves  to  other  pursuits; 
and  their  number  will  undoubtedly  increase  as  time  goes 
on,  and  we  learn  the  lessons  of  fife  with  a  richer  back- 


THE  THIRD  PERIOD  427 

ground.  But  one  cannot  help  feeling  regretful  that  the 
custom  is  not  growing  more  rapidly. 

A  man  must  unquestionably  prepare  years  ahead  for 
his  retirement,  not  alone  financially,  but  mentally  as 
well.  Bok  noticed  as  a  curious  fact  that  nearly  every 
business  man  who  told  him  he  had  made  a  mistake  in  his 
retirement,  and  that  the  proper  life  for  a  man  is  to  stick 
to  the  game  and  see  it  through — "hold  her  nozzle  agin 
the  bank"  as  Jim  Bludso  would  say — was  a  man  with 
no  resources  outside  his  business.  Naturally,  a  retire- 
ment is  a  mistake  in  the  eyes  of  such  a  man;  but  oh,  the 
pathos  of  such  a  position:  that  in  a  world  of  so  much 
interest,  in  an  age  so  fascinatingly  full  of  things  worth 
doing,  a  man  should  have  allowed  himself  to  become  a 
slave  to  his  business,  and  should  imagine  no  other  man 
happy  without  the  same  claims ! 

It  is  this  lesson  that  the  American  business  man  has 
still  to  learn:  that  no  man  can  be  wholly  efficient  in  his 
life,  that  he  is  not  living  a  four-squared  existence,  if  he 
concentrates  every  waking  thought  on  his  material 
affairs.  He  has  still  to  learn  that  man  cannot  live  by 
bread  alone.  The  making  of  money,  the  accumulation 
of  material  power,  is  not  all  there  is  to  living.  Life  is 
something  more  than  these,  and  the  man  who  misses 
this  truth  misses  the  greatest  joy  and  satisfaction  that 
can  come  into  his  life — service  for  others. 

Some  men  argue  that  they  can  give  this  service  and 
be  in  business,  too.  But  service  with  such  men  generally 
means  drawing  a  check  for  some  worthy  cause,  and 
nothing  more.  Edward  Bok  never  belittled  the  giv- 
ing of  contributions — he  solicited  too  much  money  him- 


428  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

self  for  the  causes  in  which  he  was  interested — but  it  is 
a  poor  nature  that  can  satisfy  itself  that  it  is  serving 
humanity  by  merely  signing  checks.  There  is  no  form 
of  service  more  comfortable  or  so  cheap.  Real  service, 
however,  demands  that  a  man  give  himself  with  his 
check.  And  that  the  average  man  cannot  do  if  he  re- 
mains in  affairs. 

Particularly  true  is  this  to-day,  when  every  problem 
of  business  is  so  engrossing,  demanding  a  man's  full 
time  and  thought.  It  is  the  rare  man  who  can  devote 
himself  to  business  and  be  fresh  for  the  service  of  others 
afterward.  No  man  can,  with  efficiency,  serve  two 
masters  so  exacting  as  are  these.  Besides,  if  his  business 
has  seemed  important  enough  to  demand  his  entire 
attention,  are  not  the  great  uplift  questions  equally 
worth  his  exclusive  thought?  Are  they  easier  of  solu- 
tion than  the  material  problems  ? 

A  man  can  live  a  life  full-square  only  when  he  divides 
it  into  three  periods : 

First:  that  of  education,  acquiring  the  fullest  and 
best  within  his  reach  and  power; 

Second:  that  of  achievement:  achieving  for  himself 
and  his  family,  and  discharging  the  first  duty  of  any  man, 
that  in  case  of  his  incapacity  those  who  are  closest  to 
him  are  provided  for.  But  such  provision  does  not  mean 
an  accumulation  that  becomes  to  those  he  leaves  behind 
him  an  embarrassment  rather  than  a  protection.  To 
prevent  this,  the  next  period  confronts  him : 

Third :  Service  for  others.  That  is  the  acid  test  where 
many  a  man  falls  short:  to  know  when  he  has  enough, 
and  to  be  willing  not  only  to  let  well  enough  alone,  but 


THE  THIRD  PERIOD  429 

to  give  a  helping  hand  to  the  other  fellow;  to  recognize, 
in  a  practical  way,  that  we  are  our  brother's  keeper; 
that  a  brotherhood  of  man  does  exist  outside  after- 
dinner  speeches.  Too  many  men  make  the  mistake, 
when  they  reach  the  point  of  enough,  of  going  on  pur- 
suing the  same  old  game:  accumulating  more  money, 
grasping  for  more  power  until  either  a  nervous  break- 
down overtakes  them  and  a  sad  incapacity  results,  or 
they  drop  "in  the  harness,"  which  is,  of  course,  only  call- 
ing an  early  grave  by  another  name.  They  cannot  seem 
to  get  the  truth  into  their  heads  that  as  they  have 
been  helped  by  others  so  should  they  now  help  others: 
as  their  means  have  come  from  the  public,  so  now  they 
owe  something  in  turn  to  that  public. 

No  man  has  a  right  to  leave  the  world  no  better  than 
he  found  it.  He  must  add  something  to  it:  either  he 
must  make  its  people  better  and  happier,  or  he  must 
make  the  face  of  the  world  fairer  to  look  at.  And 
the  one  really  means  the  other. 

"Idealism,"  immediately  say  some.  Of  course,  it  is. 
But  what  is  the  matter  with  idealism?  What  really  is 
idealism  ?  Do  one-tenth  of  those  who  use  the  phrase  so 
glibly  know  its  true  meaning,  the  part  it  has  played  in  the 
world?  The  worthy  interpretation  of  an  ideal  is  that 
it  embodies  an  idea — a  conception  of  the  imagination. 
All  ideas  are  at  first  ideals.  They  must  be.  The  pro- 
ducer brings  forth  an  idea,  but  some  dreamer  has 
dreamed  it  before  him  either  in  whole  or  in  part. 

Where  would  the  human  race  be  were  it  not  for  the 
ideals  of  men  ?  It  is  idealists,  in  a  large  sense,  that  this 
old  world  needs  to-day.     Its  soil  is  sadly  in  need  of  new 


43©  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

seed.  Washington,  in  his  day,  was  decried  as  an  ideal- 
ist. So  was  Jefferson.  It  was  commonly  remarked  of 
Lincoln  that  he  was  a  "rank  idealist."  Morse,  Watt, 
Marconi,  Edison — all  were,  at  first,  adjudged  idealists. 
We  say  of  the  League  of  Nations  that  it  is  ideal,  and  we 
use  the  term  in  a  derogatory  sense.  But  that  was 
exactly  what  was  said  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  "Insanely  ideal"  was  the  term  used 
of  it. 

The  idealist,  particularly  to-day  when  there  is  so 
great  need  of  him,  is  not  to  be  scoffed  at.  It  is  through 
him  and  only  through  him  that  the  world  will  see  a  new 
and  clear  vision  of  what  is  right.  It  is  he  who  has  the 
power  of  going  out  of  himself — that  self  in  which  too 
many  are  nowadays  so  deeply  imbedded;  it  is  he  who, 
in  seeking  the  ideal,  will,  through  his  own  clearer  percep- 
tion or  that  of  others,  transform  the  ideal  into  the  real. 
"Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." 

It  was  his  remark  that  he  retired  because  he  wanted 
"to  play"  that  Edward  Bok's  friends  most  completely 
misunderstood.  "Play"  in  their  minds  meant  tennis, 
golf,  horseback,  polo,  travel,  etc. — (curious  that  scarcely 
one  mentioned  reading!).  It  so  happens  that  no  one 
enjoys  some  of  these  play-forms  more  than  Bok;  but 
"God  forbid,"  he  said,  "that  I  should  spend  the  rest  of 
my  days  in  a  bunker  or  in  the  saddle.  In  moderation," 
he  added,  "yes;  most  decidedly."  But  the  phrase  of 
"play"  meant  more  to  him  than  aU  this.  Playis  diver- 
sion :  exertion  of  the  mind  as  well  as  of  the  body.  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  mental  play  as  well  as  physical  play. 
We  ask  of  play  that  it  shall  rest,  refresh,  exhilarate.     Is 


THE  THIRD  PERIOD  431 

there  any  form  of  mental  activity  that  secures  all  these 
ends  so  thorojighly  and  so  directly  as  doing  something 
that  a  man  really  likes  to  do,  doing  it  with  all  his  heart, 
all  the  time  conscious  that  he  is  helping  to  make  the 
world  better  for  some  one  else  ? 

A  man's  "play"  can  take  many  forms.  If  his  life 
has  been  barren  of  books  or  travel,  let  him  read  or  see 
the  world.  But  he  reaches  his  high  estate  by  either  of 
these  roads  only  when  he  reads  or  travels  to  enrich  him- 
self in  order  to  give  out  what  he  gets  to  enrich  the  Hves 
of  others.  He  owes  it  to  himself  to  get  his  own  refresh- 
ment, his  own  pleasure,  but  he  need  not  make  that  pure 
self-indulgence. 

Other  men,  more  active  in  body  and  mind,  feel  drawn 
to  the  modern  arena  of  the  great  questions  that  puzzle. 
It  matters  not  in  which  direction  a  man  goes  in  these 
matters  any  more  than  the  length  of  a  step  matters  so 
much  as  does  the  direction  in  which  the  step  is  taken. 
He  should  seek  those  questions  which  engross  his  deep- 
est interest,  whether  literary,  musical,  artistic,  civic, 
economic,  or  what  not. 

Our  cities,  towns,  communities  of  all  sizes  and  kinds, 
urban  and  rural,  cry  out  for  men  to  solve  their  problems. 
There  is  room  and  to  spare  for  the  man  of  any  bent. 
The  old  Romans  looked  forward,  on  coming  to  the  age 
of  retirement,  which  was  definitely  fixed  by  rule,  to  a 
rural  life,  when  they  hied  themselves  to  a  little  home  in 
the  country,  had  open  house  for  their  friends,  and  "kept 
bees."  While  bee-keeping  is  unquestionably  interesting, 
there  are  to-day  other  and  more  vital  occupations 
awaiting  the  retired  American. 


432   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

The  main  thing  is  to  secure  that  freedom  of  move- 
ment that  lets  a  man  go  where  he  will  apd  do  what  he 
thinks  he  can  do  best,  and  prove  to  himself  and  to  others 
that  the  acquirement  of  the  dollar  is  not  all  there  is  to 
life.  No  man  can  realize,  until  on  awakening  some 
morning  he  feels  the  exhilaration,  the  sense  of  freedom 
that  comes  from  knowing  he  can  choose  his  own  doings 
and  control  his  own  goings.  Time  is  of  more  value  than 
money,  and  it  is  that  which  the  man  who  retires  feels 
that  he  possesses.  Hamilton  Mabie  once  paid,  after 
his  retirement  from  an  active  editorial  position:  "I  am 
so  happy  that  the  time  has  come  when  I  elect  what  I 
shall  do,"  which  is  true;  but  then  he  added:  "I  have 
rubbed  out  the  word  'must'  from  my  vocabulary," 
which  was  not  true.  No  man  ever  reaches  that  point. 
Duty  of  some  sort  confronts  a  man  in  business  or  out  of 
business,  and  duty  spells  "must."  But  there  is  less 
''must"  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  retired  man;  and  it  is 
this  lessened  quantity  that  gives  the  tang  of  joy  to  the 
new  day. 

It  is  a  wonderful  inner  personal  satisfaction  to  reach 
the  point  when  a  man  can  say:  "I  have  enough."  His 
soul  and  character  are  refreshed  by  it:  he  is  made  over 
by  it.  He  begins  a  new  life !  he  gets  a  sense  of  a  new 
Joy;  he  feels,  for  the  first  time,  what  a  priceless  posses- 
sion is  that  thing  that  he  never  knew  before,  freedom. 
And  if  he  seeks  that  freedom  at  the  right  time,  when  he 
is  at  the  summit  of  his  years  and  powers  and  at  the  most 
opportune  moment  in  his  affairs,  he  has  that  supreme 
satisfaction  denied  to  so  many  men,  the  opposite  of 
which  comes  home  with  such  cruel  force  to  them:   that 


THE  THIRD  PERIOD  433 

they  have  overstayed  their  time:  they  have  worn  out 
their  welcome. 

There  is  no  satisfaction  that  so  thoroughly  satisfies 
as  that  of  going  while  the  going  is  good. 

Still 

The  friends  of  Edward  Bok  may  be  right  when  they 
said  he  made  a  mistake  in  his  retirement. 

However 

As  Mr.  Dooley  says:  "It's  a  good  thing,  sometimes, 
to  have  people  size  ye  up  wrong,  Hinnessey:  it's  whin 
they've  got  ye'er  measure  ye're  in  danger." 

Edward  Bok's  friends  have  failed  to  get  his  measure, 
—yet ! 

They  still  have  to  learn  what  he  has  learned  and  is 
learning  every  day:  "the  joy,"  as  Charles  Lamb  so 
aptly  put  it  upon  his  retirement,  "of  walking  about  and 
around  instead  of  to  and  fro." 


The  question  now  naturally  arises,  having  read  this 
record  thus  far:  To  what  extent,  with  his  unusual  op- 
portunities of  fifty  years,  has  the  Americanization  of 
Edward  Bok  gone?  How  far  is  he,  to-day,  an  Ameri- 
can? These  questions,  so  direct  and  personal  in  their 
nature,  are  perhaps  best  answered  in  a  way  more  direct 
and  personal  than  the  method  thus  far  adopted  in  this 
chronicle.  We  will,  therefore,  let  Edward  Bok  answer 
these  questions  for  himself,  in  closing  this  record  of  his 
Americanization. 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII 
WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH  ME 

When  I  came  to  the  United  States  as  a  lad  of  six,  the 
most  needful  lesson  for  me,  as  a  boy,  was  the  necessity 
for  thrift.  I  had  been  taught  in  my  home  across  the 
sea  that  thrift  was  one  of  the  fundamentals  in  a  success- 
ful life.  My  family  had  come  from  a  land  (the  Nether- 
lands) noted  for  its  thrift;  but  we  had  been  in  the  United 
States  only  a  few  days  before  the  realization  came  home 
strongly  to  my  father  and  mother  that  they  had  brought 
their  children  to  a  land  of  waste. 

Where  the  Dutchman  saved,  the  American  wasted. 
There  was  waste,  and  the  most  prodigal  waste,  on  every 
hand.  In  every  street-car  and  on  every  ferry-boat  the 
floors  and  seats  were  littered  with  newspapers  that  had 
been  read  and  thrown  away  or  left  behind.  If  I  went  to 
a  grocery  store  to  buy  a  peck  of  potatoes,  and  a  potato 
rolled  off  the  heaping  measure,  the  groceryman,  instead 
of  picking  it  up,  kicked  it  into  the  gutter  for  the  wheels 
of  his  wagon  to  run  over.  The  butcher's  waste  filled 
my  mother's  soul  with  dismay.  If  I  bought  a  scuttle 
of  coal  at  the  corner  grocery,  the  coal  that  missed  the 
scuttle,  instead  of  being  shovelled  up  and  put  back  into 
the  bin,  was  swept  into  the  street.  My  young  eyes 
quickly  saw  this;  in  the  evening  I  gathered  up  the  coal 
thus  swept  away,  and  during  the  course  of  a  week  I 
collected  a  scuttleful.     The  first  time  my  mother  saw 

434 


WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH  ME    435 

the  garbage  pail  of  a  family  almost  as  poor  as  our  own, 
with  the  wife  and  husband  constantly  complaining  that 
they  could  not  get  along,  she  could  scarcely  believe  her 
eyes.  A  half  pan  of  hominy  of  the  preceding  day's 
breakfast  lay  in  the  pail  next  to  a  third  of  a  loaf  of  bread. 
In  later  years,  when  I  saw,  daily,  a  scow  loaded  with  the 
garbage  of  Brooklyn  householders  being  towed  through 
New  York  harbor  out  to  sea,  it  was  an  easy  calculation 
that  what  was  thrown  away  in  a  week's  time  from  Brook- 
lyn homes  would  feed  the  poor  of  the  Netherlands. 

At  school,  I  quickly  learned  that  to  "save  money" 
was  to  be  "stingy";  as  a  young  man,  I  soon  found  that 
the  American  disHked  the  word  "economy,"  and  on 
every  hand  as  plenty  grew  spending  grew.  There  was 
Hterally  nothing  in  American  life  to  teach  me  thrift 
or  economy;  everything  to  teach  me  to  spend  and  to 
waste. 

I  saw  men  who  had  earned  good  salaries  in  their  prime, 
reach  the  years  of  incapacity  as  dependents.  I  saw 
families  on  every  hand  either  living  quite  up  to  their 
means  or  beyond  them;  rarely  within  them.  The  more 
a  man  earned,  the  more  he — or  his  wife — spent.  I  saw 
fathers  and  mothers  and  their  children  dressed  beyond 
their  incomes.  The  proportion  of  families  who  ran  into 
debt  was  far  greater  than  those  who  saved.  When  a 
panic  came,  the  families  "pulled  in";  when  the  panic 
was  over,  they  "let  out."  But  the  end  of  one  year 
found  them  precisely  where  they  were  at  the  close  of 
the  previous  year,  unless  they  were  deeper  in  debt. 

It  was  in  this  atmosphere  of  prodigal  expenditure  and 
culpable  waste  that  I  was  to  practise  thrift:   a  funda- 


436   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD   BOK 

mental  in  life !  And  it  is  into  this  atmosphere  that  the 
foreign-born  comes  now,  with  every  inducement  to 
spend  and  no  encouragement  to  save.  For  as  it  was  in 
the  days  of  my  boyhood,  so  it  is  to-day — only  worse. 
One  need  only  go  over  the  experiences  of  the  past  two 
years,  to  compare  the  receipts  of  merchants  who  cater 
to  the  working-classes  and  the  statements  of  savings- 
banks  throughout  the  country,  to  read  the  story  of  how 
the  foreign-born  are  learning  the  habit  of  criminal  waste- 
fulness as  taught  them  by  the  American. 

Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  in  this,  one  of  the  essentials 
in  life  and  in  all  success,  America  fell  short  with  me,  as 
it  is  continuing  to  fall  short  with  every  foreign-born  who 
comes  to  its  shores  ? 

As  a  Dutch  boy,  one  of  the  cardinal  truths  taught  me 
was  that  whatever  was  worth  doing  was  worth  doing 
well:  that  next  to  honesty  came  thoroughness  as  a 
factor  in  success.  It  was  not  enough  that  anything 
should  be  done:  it  was  not  done  at  all  if  it  was  not 
done  well.  I  came  to  America  to  be  taught  exactly  the 
opposite.  The  two  infernal  Americanisms  "That's  good 
enough"  and  "That  will  do"  were  early  taught  me,  to- 
gether with  the  maxim  of  quantity  rather  than  quality. 

It  was  not  the  boy  at  school  who  could  write  the  words 
in  his  copy-book  best  who  received  the  praise  of  the 
teacher;  it  was  the  boy  who  could  write  the  largest 
number  of  words  in  a  given  time.  The  acid  test  in 
arithmetic  was  not  the  mastery  of  the  method,  but  the 
number  of  minutes  required  to  work  out  an  example. 
If  a  boy  abbreviated  the  month  January  to  "Jan." 


WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH  ME    437 

and  the  word  Company  to  "Co."  he  received  a  hundred 
per  cent  mark,  as  did  the  boy  who  spelled  out  the  words 
and  who  could  not  make  the  teacher  see  that  "Co."  did 
not  spell  "Company." 

As  I  grew  into  young  manhood,  and  went  into  busi- 
ness, I  found  on  every  hand  that  quantity  counted  for 
more  than  quality.  The  emphasis  was  almost  always 
placed  on  how  much  work  one  could  do  in  a  day,  rather 
than  upon  how  well  the  work  was  done.  Thoroughness 
was  at  a  discount  on  every  hand;  production  at  a 
premium.  It  made  no  difference  in  what  direction  I 
went,  the  result  was  the  same:  the  cry  was  always  for 
quantity,  quantity !  And  into  this  atmosphere  of  al- 
most utter  disregard  for  quality  I  brought  my  ideas  of 
Dutch  thoroughness  and  my  conviction  that  doing  well 
whatever  I  did  was  to  count  as  a  cardinal  principle  in 
life. 

During  my  years  of  editorship,  save  in  one  or  two 
conspicuous  instances,  I  was  never  able  to  assign  to  an 
American  writer,  work  which  called  for  painstaking  re- 
search. In  every  instance,  the  work  came  back  to  me 
either  incorrect  in  statement,  or  otherwise  obviously 
lacking  in  careful  preparation. 

One  of  the  most  successful  departments  I  ever  con- 
ducted in  The  Ladies^  Home  Jour^tal  called  for  infinite 
reading  and  patient  digging,  with  the  actual  results 
sometimes  almost  neghgible.  I  made  a  study  of  my 
associates  by  turning  the  department  over  to  one  after 
another,  and  always  with  the  same  result:  absolute  lack 
of  a  capacity  for  patient  research.  As  one  of  my  edi- 
tors, typically  American,  said  to  me:  "It  isn't  worth  all 


438   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

the  trouble  that  you  put  mto  it."  Yet  no  single  depart- 
ment ever  repaid  the  searcher  more  for  his  pains.  Save 
for  assistance  derived  from  a  single  person,  I  had  to  do 
the  work  myself  for  aU  the  years  that  the  department 
continued.  It  was  apparently  impossible  for  the  Amer- 
ican to  work  with  sufficient  patience  and  care  to  achieve 
a  result. 

We  all  have  our  pet  notions  as  to  the  particular  evil 
which  is  "the  curse  of  America,"  but  I  always  think  that 
Theodore  Roosevelt  came  closest  to  the  real  curse  when 
he  classed  it  as  a  lack  of  thoroughness. 

Here  again,  in  one  of  the  most  important  matters 
in  life,  did  America  fall  short  with  me;  and,  what  is 
more  important,  she  is  falling  short  with  every  foreigner 
that  comes  to  her  shores. 

In  the  matter  of  education,  America  fell  far  short  in 
what  should  be  the  strongest  of  aU  her  institutions :  the 
public  school.  A  more  inadequate,  incompetent  method 
of  teaching,  as  I  look  back  over  my  seven  years  of  at- 
tendance at  three  different  public  schools,  it  is  difficult 
to  conceive.  If  there  is  one  thing  that  I,  as  a  foreign- 
bom  child,  should  have  been  carefully  taught,  it  is  the 
EngUsh  language.  The  individual  effort  to  teach  this, 
if  effort  there  was,  and  I  remember  none,  was  negligible. 
It  was  left  for  my  father  to  teach  me,  or  for  me 
to  dig  it  out  for  myself.  There  was  absolutely  no  indi- 
cation on  the  part  of  teacher  or  principal  of  responsi- 
bihty  for  seeing  that  a  foreign-born  boy  should  acquire 
the  English  language  correctly.  I  was  taught  as  if  I 
were  American-born,  and,  of  course,  I  was  left  dangling 


WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH  ME    439 

in  the  air,  with  no  conception  of  what  I  was  trying 
to  do. 

My  father  worked  with  me  evening  after  evening; 
I  plunged  my  young  mind  deep  into  the  bewildering 
confusions  of  the  language — and  no  one  reaUzes  the  con- 
fusions of  the  Enghsh  language  as  does  the  foreign-born 
— and  got  what  I  could  through  these  joint  efforts.  But 
I  gained  nothing  from  the  much-vaunted  public-school 
system  which  the  United  States  had  borrowed  from  my 
own  country,  and  then  had  rendered  incompetent — either 
by  a  sheer  disregard  for  the  thoroughness  that  makes 
the  Dutch  public  schools  the  admiration  of  the  world, 
or  by  too  close  a  regard  for  poHtics. 

Thus,  in  her  most  important  institution  to  the  for- 
eign-born, America  fell  short.  And  while  I  am  ready  to 
believe  that  the  public  school  may  have  increased  in 
efficiency  since  that  day,  it  is,  indeed,  a  question  for 
the  American  to  ponder,  just  how  far  the  system  is 
efficient  for  the  education  of  the  child  who  comes  to 
its  school  without  a  knowledge  of  the  first  word  in  the 
English  language.  Without  a  detailed  knowledge  of 
the  subject,  I  know  enough  of  conditions  in  the  average 
public  school  to-day  to  warrant  at  least  the  suspicion 
that  Americans  would  not  be  particularly  proud  of  the 
system,  and  of  what  it  gives  for  which  annually  they 
pay  millions  of  dollars  in  taxes. 

I  am  aware  in  making  this  statement  that  I  shall  be 
met  with  convincing  instances  of  intelligent  effort  be- 
ing made  with  the  foreign-born  children  in  special  classes. 
No  one  has  a  higher  respect  for  those  efforts  than  I  have 
— few,  other  than  educators,  know  of  them  better  than 


440   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

I  do,  since  I  did  not  make  my  five-year  study  of  the 
American  public  school  system  for  naught.  But  I  am 
not  referring  to  the  exceptional  instance  here  and  there. 
I  merely  ask  of  the  American,  interested  as  he  is  or 
should  be  in  the  Americanization  of  the  strangers  within 
his  gates,  how  far  the  public  school  system,  as  a  whole, 
urban  and  rural,  adapts  itself,  with  any  true  efficiency, 
to  the  foreign-born  child.  I  venture  to  color  his  opinion 
in  no  wise;  I  simply  ask  that  he  will  inquire  and  ascer- 
tain for  himself,  as  he  should  do  if  he  is  interested  in  the 
future  welfare  of  his  country  and  his  institutions;  for 
what  happens  in  America  in  the  years  to  come  depends, 
in  large  measure,  on  what  is  happening  to-day  in  the 
public  schools  of  this  country. 

As  a  Dutch  boy  I  was  taught  a  wholesome  respect  for 
law  and  for  authority.  The  fact  was  impressed  upon 
me  that  laws  of  themselves  were  futile  unless  the  people 
for  whom  they  were  made  respected  them,  and  obeyed 
them  in  spirit  more  even  than  in  the  letter.  I  came  to 
America  to  feel,  on  every  hand,  that  exactly  the  opposite 
was  true.  Laws  were  passed,  but  were  not  enforced; 
the  spirit  to  enforce  them  was  lacking  in  the  people. 
There  was  little  respect  for  the  law;  there  was  scarcely 
any  for  those  appointed  to  enforce  it. 

The  nearest  that  a  boy  gets  to  the  law  is  through  the 
policeman.  In  the  Netherlands  a  boy  is  taught  that  a 
policeman  is  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property;  that 
he  is  the  natural  friend  of  every  boy  and  man  who  be- 
haves himself.  The  Dutch  boy  and  the  policeman  are, 
naturally,  friendly  in  their  relations.     I  came  to  America 


WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH  ME    441 

to  be  told  that  a  policeman  is  a  boy's  natural  enemy; 
that  he  is  eager  to  arrest  him  if  he  can  find  the  slightest 
reason  for  doing  so.  A  policeman,  I  was  informed,  was 
a  being  to  hold  in  fear,  not  in  respect.  He  was  to  be 
avoided,  not  to  be  made  friends  with.  The  result  was 
that,  as  did  all  boys,  I  came  to  regard  the  policeman  on 
our  beat  as  a  distinct  enemy.  His  presence  meant  that 
we  should  "stiffen  up";  his  disappearance  was  the 
signal  for  us  to  "let  loose." 

So  long  as  one  was  not  caught,  it  did  not  matter.  I 
heard  mothers  tell  their  little  children  that  if  they  did 
not  behave  themselves,  the  policeman  would  put  them 
into  a  bag  and  carry  them  off,  or  cut  their  ears  off.  Of 
course,  the  policeman  became  to  them  an  object  of  ter- 
ror; the  law  he  represented,  a  cruel  thing  that  stood  for 
punishment.  Not  a  note  of  respect  did  I  ever  hear  for 
the  law  in  my  boyhood  days.  A  law  was  something  to 
be  broken,  to  be  evaded,  to  call  down  upon  others  as 
a  source  of  punishment,  but  never  to  be  regarded  in  the 
light  of  a  safeguard. 

And  as  I  grew  into  manhood,  the  newspapers  rang 
on  every  side  with  disrespect  for  those  in  authority. 
Under  the  special  dispensation  of  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
which  was  construed  into  the  license  of  the  press,  no 
man  was  too  high  to  escape  editorial  vituperation  if  his 
politics  did  not  happen  to  suit  the  management,  or  if 
his  action  ran  counter  to  what  the  proprietors  believed 
it  should  be.  It  was  not  criticism  of  his  acts,  it  was 
personal  attack  upon  the  official;  whether  supervisor, 
mayor,  governor,  or  president,  it  mattered  not. 

It  is  a  very  unfortunate  impression  that  this  American 


442   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

lack  of  respect  for  those  in  authority  makes  upon  the 
foreign-born  mind.  It  is  difficult  for  the  foreigner  to 
square  up  the  arrest  and  deportation  of  a  man  who, 
through  an  incendiary  address,  seeks  to  overthrow 
governmental  authority,  with  the  ignoring  of  an  expres- 
sion of  exactly  the  same  sentiments  by  the  editor  of  his 
next  morning's  newspaper.  In  other  words,  the  man 
who  writes  is  immune,  but  the  man  who  reads,  imbibes, 
and  translates  the  editor's  words  into  action  is  immedi- 
ately marked  as  a  culprit,  and  America  will  not  harbor 
him.  But  why  harbor  the  original  cause?  Is  the  man 
who  speaks  with  type  less  dangerous  than  he  who  speaks 
with  his  mouth  or  with  a  bomb  ? 

At  the  most  vital  part  of  my  life,  when  I  was  to  become 
an  American  citizen  and  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage, 
America  fell  entirely  short.  It  reached  out  not  even  the 
suggestion  of  a  hand. 

When  the  Presidential  Conventions  had  been  held 
in  the  year  I  reached  my  legal  majority,  and  I  knew  I 
could  vote,  I  endeavored  to  find  out  whether,  being 
foreign-born,  I  was  entitled  to  the  suffrage.  No  one 
could  tell  me;  and  not  until  I  had  visited  six  different 
municipal  departments,  being  referred  from  one  to  an- 
other, was  it  explained  that,  through  my  father's  nat- 
uralization, I  became,  automatically,  as  his  son,  an 
American  citizen.  I  decided  to  read  up  on  the  platforms 
of  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties,  but  I  could 
not  secure  copies  anywhere,  although  a  week  had  passed 
since  they  had  been  adopted  in  convention. 

I  was  told  the  newspapers  had  printed  them.     It 


WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH   ME    443 

occurred  to  me  there  must  be  many  others  besides  my- 
self who  were  anxious  to  secure  the  platforms  of  the  two 
parties  in  sonic  more  convenient  form.  With  the  eye  of 
necessity  ever  upon  a  chance  to  earn  an  honest  penny, 
I  went  to  a  newspaper  office,  cut  out  from  its  files  the 
two  platforms,  had  them  printed  in  a  small  pocket  edi- 
tion, sold  one  edition  to  the  American  News  Company 
and  another  to  the  News  Company  controlling  the 
Elevated  Railroad  bookstands  in  New  York  City,  where 
they  sold  at  ten  cents  each.  So  great  was  the  demand 
which  I  had  only  partially  guessed,  that  within  three 
weeks  I  had  sold  such  huge  editions  of  the  little  books 
that  I  had  cleared  over  a  thousand  dollars. 

But  it  seemed  to  me  strange  that  it  should  depend 
on  a  foreign-born  American  to  supply  an  eager  public 
with  what  should  have  been  supplied  through  the  agency 
of  the  political  parties  or  through  some  educational 
source. 

I  now  tried  to  find  out  what  a  vote  actually  meant. 
It  must  be  recalled  that  I  was  only  twenty-one  years  old, 
with  scant  education,  and  with  no  civic  agency  offering 
me  the  information  I  was  seeking.  I  went  to  the  head- 
quarters of  each  of  the  political  parties  and  put  my 
query.     I  was  regarded  with  puzzled  looks. 

"What  does  it  mean  to  vote?"  asked  one  chairman. 
*'Why,  on  Election  Day  you  go  up  to  the  ballot-box  and 
put  your  ballot  in,  and  that's  all  there  is  to  it." 

But  I  knew  very  well  that  that  was  not  all  there  was 
to  it,  and  was  determined  to  find  out  the  significance  of 
the  franchise.  I  met  with  dense  ignorance  on  every 
hand.     I  went  to  the  Brooklyn  Library,  and  was  frankly 


444  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

told  by  the  librarian  that  he  did  not  know  of  a  book 
that  would  tell  me  what  I  wanted  to  know.  This  was 
in  1884. 

As  the  campaign  increased  in  intensity,  I  found  my- 
self a  desired  person  in  the  eyes  of  the  local  campaign 
managers,  but  not  one  of  them  could  tell  me  the  signifi- 
cance and  meaning  of  the  privilege  I  was  for  the  first 
time  to  exercise. 

Finally,  I  spent  an  evening  with  Seth  Low,  and,  of 
course,  got  the  desired  information. 

But  fancy  the  quest  I  had  been  compelled  to  make  to 
acquire  the  simple  information  that  should  have  been 
placed  in  my  hands  or  made  readily  accessible  to  me. 
And  how  many  foreign-born  would  take  equal  pains  to 
ascertain  what  I  was  determined  to  find  out  ? 

Surely  America  fell  short  here  at  the  moment  most 
sacred  to  me :  that  of  my  first  vote ! 

Is  it  any  easier  to-day  for  the  foreign  citizen  to  acquire 
this  information  when  he  approaches  his  first  vote? 
I  wonder !  Not  that  I  do  not  believe  there  are  agencies 
for  this  purpose.  You  know  there  are,  and  so  do  I. 
But  how  about  the  foreign-born?  Does  he  know  it? 
Is  it  not  perhaps  like  the  owner  of  the  bulldog  who 
assured  the  friend  calling  on  him  that  it  never  attacked 
friends  of  the  family?  "Yes,"  said  the  friend,  "that's 
all  right.  You  know  and  I  know  that  I  am  a  friend  of 
the  family;  but  does  the  dog  know?" 

Is  it  to-day  made  known  to  the  foreign-born,  about 
to  exercise  his  privilege  of  suffrage  for  the  first  time, 
where  he  can  be  told  what  that  privilege  means:  is  the 


WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH  ME    445 

means  to  know  made  readily  accessible  to  him:  is  it, 
in  fact,  as  it  should  be,  brought  to  him? 

It  was  not  to  me;  is  it  to  him? 

One  fundamental  trouble  with  the  present  desire  for 
Americanization  is  that  the  American  is  anxious  to 
Americanize  two  classes — if  he  is  a  reformer,  the  foreign- 
bom;  if  he  is  an  employer,  his  employees.  It  never 
occurs  to  him  that  he  himself  may  be  in  need  of  Ameri- 
canization. He  seems  to  take  it  for  granted  that  be- 
cause he  is  American-born,  he  is  an  American  in  spirit 
and  has  a  right  understanding  of  American  ideals.  But 
that,  by  no  means,  always  follows.  There  are  thousands 
of  the  American-born  who  need  Americanization  just 
as  much  as  do  the  foreign-born.  There  are  hundreds  of 
American  employers  who  know  far  less  of  American  ideals 
than  do  some  of  their  employees.  In  fact,  there  are  those 
actually  engaged  to-day  in  the  work  of  Americanization, 
men  at  the  top  of  the  movement,  who  sadly  need  a 
better  conception  of  true  Americanism. 

An  excellent  illustration  of  this  came  to  my  knowledge 
when  I  attended  a  large  Americanization  Conference  in 
Washington.  One  of  the  principal  speakers  was  an 
educator  of  high  standing  and  considerable  influence  in 
one  of  the  most  important  sections  of  the  United  States. 
In  a  speech  setting  forth  his  ideas  of  Americanization, 
he  dwelt  with  much  emphasis  and  at  considerable  length 
upon  instilHng  into  the  mind  of  the  foreign-bom  the 
highest  respect  for  American  institutions. 

After  the  Conference  he  asked  me  whether  he  could 
see  me  that  aftemoon  at  my  hotel;   he  wanted  to  talk 


446  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

about  contributing  to  the  magazine.  When  he  came, 
before  approaching  the  object  of  his  talk,  he  launched 
out  on  a  tirade  against  the  President  of  the  United 
States;  the  weakness  of  the  Cabinet,  the  inefficiency  of 
the  Congress,  and  the  stupidity  of  the  Senate.  If  words 
could  have  killed,  there  would  have  not  remained  a  single 
living  member  of  the  Administration  at  Washington. 

After  fifteen  minutes  of  this,  I  reminded  him  of  his 
speech  and  the  emphasis  which  he  had  placed  upon  the 
necessity  of  inculcating  in  the  foreign-bom  respect  for 
American  institutions. 

Yet  this  man  was  a  power  in  his  community,  a  strong 
influence  upon  others;  he  believed  he  could  American- 
ize others,  when  he  himself,  according  to  his  own  state- 
ments, lacked  the  ftmdamental  principle  of  Americaniza- 
tion. What  is  true  of  this  man  is,  in  lesser  or  greater 
degree,  true  of  hundreds  of  others.  Their  Americaniza- 
tion consists  of  lip-service;  the  real  spirit,  the  only 
factor  which  counts  in  the  successful  teaching  of  any 
doctrine,  is  absolutely  missing.  We  certainly  cannot 
teach  anything  approaching  a  true  Americanism  until 
we  ourselves  feel  and  believe  and  practise  in  our  own 
lives  what  we  are  teaching  to  others.  No  law,  no  lip- 
service,  no  effort,  however  well-intentioned,  will  amount 
to  anything  worth  while  in  inculcating  the  true  American 
spirit  in  our  foreign-bom  citizens  until  we  are  sure  that 
the  American  spirit  is  understood  by  ourselves  and  is 
warp  and  woof  of  our  own  being. 

To  the  American,  part  and  parcel  of  his  country,  these 
particulars  in  which  his  country  falls  short  with  the 


WHERE  AMERICA  FELL  SHORT  WITH  ME    447 

foreign-born  are,  perhaps,  not  so  evident;  they  may  even 
seem  not  so  very  important.  But  to  the  foreign-born 
they  seem  distinct  lacks;  they  loom  large;  they  form 
serious  handicaps  which,  in  many  cases,  are  never  sur- 
mounted; they  are  a  menace  to  that  Americanization 
which  is,  to-day,  more  than  ever  our  fondest  dream, 
and  which  we  now  realize  more  keenly  than  before  is  our 
most  vital  need. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  have  put  them  down  here 
as  a  concrete  instance  of  where  and  how  America  fell 
short  in  my  own  Americanization,  and,  what  is  far  more 
serious  to  me,  where  she  is  falling  short  in  her  American- 
ization of  thousands  of  other  foreign-bom. 

"Yet  you  succeeded,"  it  will  be  argued. 

That  may  be;  but  you,  on  the  other  hand,  must  admit 
that  I  did  not  succeed  by  reason  of  these  shortcomings: 
it  was  in  spite  of  them,  by  overcoming  them — a  result 
that  all  might  not  achieve. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 
WHAT  I  OWE  TO  AMERICA 

Whatever  shortcomings  I  may  have  found  during 
my  fifty-year  period  of  Americanization;  however 
America  may  have  failed  to  help  my  transition  from  a 
foreigner  into  an  American,  I  owe  to  her  the  most  price- 
less gift  that  any  nation  can  offer,  and  that  is  oppor- 
timity. 

As  the  world  stands  to-day,  no  nation  offers  oppor- 
tunity in  the  degree  that  America  does  to  the  foreign- 
bom.  Russia  may,  in  the  future,  as  I  like  to  believe 
she  will,  prove  a  second  United  States  of  America  in 
this  respect.  She  has  the  same  limitless  area;  her  peo- 
ple the  same  potentialities.  But,  as  things  are  to-day, 
the  United  States  offers,  as  does  no  other  nation,  a 
limitless  opportunity:  here  a  man  can  go  as  far  as  his 
abilities  will  carry  him.  It  may  be  that  the  foreign- 
born,  as  in  my  own  case,  must  hold  on  to  some  of  the 
ideals  and  ideas  of  the  land  of  his  birth;  it  may  be  that 
he  must  develop  and  mould  his  character  by  overcoming 
the  habits  resulting  from  national  shortcomings.  But 
into  the  best  that  the  foreign-born  can  retain,  America 
can  graft  such  a  wealth  of  inspiration,  so  high  a  national 
idealism,  so  great  an  opportunity  for  the  highest  en- 
deavor, as  to  make  him  the  fortunate  man  of  the  earth 

to-day. 

448 


WHAT  I  OWE  TO  AMERICA  449 

He  can  go  where  he  will:  no  traditions  hamper  him; 
no  limitations  are  set  except  those  within  himself.  The 
larger  the  area  he  chooses  in  which  to  work,  the  larger 
the  vision  he  demonstrates,  the  more  eager  the  people 
are  to  give  support  to  his  undertakings  if  they  are  con- 
vinced that  he  has  their  best  welfare  as  his  goal.  There 
is  no  public  confidence  equal  to  that  of  the  American 
public,  once  it  is  obtained.  It  is  fickle,  of  course,  as  are 
all  publics,  but  fickle  only  toward  the  man  who  cannot 
maintain  an  achieved  success. 

A  man  in  America  cannot  complacently  lean  back 
upon  victories  won,  as  he  can  in  the  older  European 
countries,  and  depend  upon  the  glamour  of  the  past  to 
sustain  him  or  the  momentum  of  success  to  carry  him. 
Probably  the  most  alert  public  in  the  world,  it  requires 
of  its  leaders  that  they  be  alert.  Its  appetite  for  variety 
is  insatiable,  but  its  appreciation,  when  given,  is  full- 
handed  and  whole-hearted.  The  American  public  never 
holds  back  from  the  man  to  whom  it  gives;  it  never  be- 
stows in  a  niggardly  way;  it  gives  all  or  nothing. 

What  is  not  generally  understood  of  the  American 
people  is  their  wonderful  idealism.  Nothing  so  com- 
pletely surprises  the  foreign-born  as  the  discovery  of 
this  trait  in  the  American  character.  The  impression 
is  current  in  European  countries — ^perhaps  less  generally 
since  the  war — that  America  is  given  over  solely  to  a 
worship  of  the  American  dollar.  While  between  na- 
tions as  between  individuals,  comparisons  are  valueless, 
it  may  not  be  amiss  to  say,  from  personal  knowledge, 
that  the  Dutch  worship  the  gulden  infinitely  more  than 
do  the  Americans  the  dollar. 


45©  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

I  do  not  claim  that  the  American  is  always  conscious 
of  this  idealism;  often  he  is  not.  But  let  a  great  con- 
vulsion touching  moral  questions  occur,  and  the  result 
always  shows  how  close  to  the  surface  is  his  idealism. 
And  the  fact  that  so  frequently  he  puts  over  it  a  thick 
veneer  of  materialism  does  not  affect  its  quality.  The 
truest  approach,  the  only  approach  in  fact,  to  the  Ameri- 
can character  is,  as  Sir  James  Bryce  has  so  well  said, 
through  its  idealism. 

It  is  this  quality  which  gives  the  truest  inspiration  to 
the  foreign-born  in  his  endeavor  to  serve  the  people  of 
his  adopted  country.  He  is  mentally  sluggish,  indeed, 
who  does  not  discover  that  America  will  make  good 
with  him  if  he  makes  good  with  her. 

But  he  must  play  fair.  It  is  essentially  the  straight 
game  that  the  true  American  plays,  and  he  insists  that 
you  shall  play  it  too.  Evidence  there  is,  of  course,  to 
the  contrary  in  American  life,  experiences  that  seem  to 
give  ground  for  the  belief  that  the  man  succeeds  who  is 
not  scrupulous  in  playing  his  cards.  But  never  is  this 
true  in  the  long  run.  Sooner  or  later — sometimes,  un- 
fortunately, later  than  sooner — the  public  discovers 
the  trickery.  In  no  other  coimtry  in  the  world  is  the 
moral  conception  so  clear  and  true  as  in  America,  and 
no  people  will  give  a  larger  and  more  permanent  reward 
to  the  man  whose  effort  for  that  public  has  its  roots  in 
honor  and  truth. 

"The  sky  is  the  limit"  to  the  foreign-bom  who  comes 
to  America  endowed  with  honest  endeavor,  ceaseless 
industry,  and  the  ability  to  carry  through.  In  any 
honest  endeavor,  the  way  is  wide  open  to  the  will  to 


;   '  V/x,   ^  »•':,  f^t  • 


^j^triJ^ 


"'■  >  s 


WHAT  I  OWE  TO  AMERICA  451 

succeed.  Every  path  beckons,  every  vista  invites,  every 
talent  is  called  forth,  and  every  efficient  effort  finds  its 
due  reward.     In  no  land  is  the  way  so  clear  and  so  free. 

How  good  an  American  has  the  process  of  American- 
ization made  me?  That  I  cannot  say.  Who  can  say 
that  of  himself?  But  when  I  look  around  me  at  the 
American-born  I  have  come  to  know  as  my  close  friends, 
I  wonder  whether,  after  all,  the  foreign-bom  does  not 
make  in  some  sense  a  better  American — whether  he  is 
not  able  to  get  a  truer  perspective;  whether  his  is  not 
the  deeper  desire  to  see  America  greater;  whether  he 
is  not  less  content  to  let  its  faulty  institutions  be  as  they 
are;  whether  in  seeing  faults  more  clearly  he  does  not 
make  a  more  decided  effort  to  have  America  reach  those 
ideals  or  those  fundamentals  of  his  own  land  which  he 
feels  are  in  his  nature,  and  the  best  of  which  he  is 
anxious  to  graft  into  the  character  of  his  adopted  land  ? 

It  is  naturally  with  a  feeling  of  deep  satisfaction  that 
I  remember  two  Presidents  of  the  United  States  con- 
sidered me  a  sufficiently  typical  American  to  wish  to 
send  me  to  my  native  land  as  the  accredited  minister  of 
my  adopted  country.  And  yet  when  I  analyze  the  rea- 
sons for  my  choice  in  both  these  instances,  I  derive  a 
deeper  satisfaction  from  the  fact  that  my  strong  desire 
to  work  in  America  for  America  led  me  to  ask  to  be 
permitted  to  remain  here. 

It  is  this  strong  impulse  that  my  Americanization  has 
made  the  driving  power  of  my  life.  And  I  ask  no  greater 
privilege  than  to  be  allowed  to  live  to  see  my  potential 
America  become  actual:  the  America  that  I  like  to  think 
of  as  the  America  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  of  Theodore 


452   THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

Roosevelt — not  faultless,  but  less  faulty.  It  is  a  part 
in  trying  to  shape  that  America,  and  an  opportunity  to 
work  in  that  America  when  it  comes,  that  I  ask  in  return 
for  what  I  owe  to  her.  A  greater  privilege  no  man  could 
have. 


EDWARD   WILLIAM   BOK 

BIOGRAPHICAL  DATA 

1863:    Born,  October  9,  at  Helder,  Netherlands. 

1870:    September  20:  Arrived  in  the  United  States. 

1870:    Entered  public  schools  of  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

1873:  Obtained  first  position  in  F'rost's  Bakery,  Smith  Street, 
Brooklyn,  at  50  cents  per  week. 

1876:  August  7:  Entered  employ  of  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Company  as  office-boy. 

1882 :    Entered  employ  of  Henry  Holt  &  Company  as  stenographer. 

1884:    Entered  employ  of  Charles  Scribner's  Sons  as  stenographer, 

1884:    Became  editor  of  The  Brooklyn  Magazine. 

1886:    Founded  The  Bok  Syndicate  Press. 

1887:  Published  Henry  Ward  Beecher  Memorial  (privately 
printed). 

1889:    October  20:  Became  editor  of  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal. 

1890:    Published  Successward:  Doubleday,  McClure  &  Company. 

1894:  Published  Before  He  Is  Twenty:  Fleming  H.  Revell  Com- 
pany. 

1896:    October  22:  Married  Mary  Louise  Curtis. 

1897:    September  7:  Son  born:  William  Curtis  Bok. 

1900:  Published  The  Young  Man  in  Business:  L.  C.  Page  & 
Company. 

1905:    January  25:  Son  born:  Cary  William  Bok. 

1906:  Published  Her  Brother's  Letters  (Anonymous):  Moffat, 
Yard  &  Company. 

1907:  Degree  of  LL.D.  of  Order  of  Augustinian  Fathers  conferred 
by  order  of  Pope  Pius  X.,  by  the  Most  Reverend  Diomede 
Falconio,  D.D.,  Apostolic  Delegate  to  the  United  States, 
at  Villanova  College. 

453 


454  THE  AMERICANIZATION  OF  EDWARD  BOK 

1910:    Degree  of  LL.D.  conferred,  in  absentia,  by  Hope  College, 

Holland,  Michigan  (the  only  Dutch  college  in  the  United 

States). 
1911:    Founded,  with  others,  The  Child  Federation  of  Philadelphia. 
191 2:    Published:    The  Edward  Bok  Books  of  Self-Knowledge;  iiwt 

volumes:  Fleming  H.  Revell  Company. 
1 913:    Founded,  with  others.  The  Merion  Civic  Association,  at 

Merion,  Pennsylvania. 
1915:    Published   Why  I  Believe  in  Poverty:   Houghton,  Mifflin 

Company. 
1916:    Pubhshed  poem,   God^s  Hand,  set  to  music  by  Josef  Hof- 

mann:  Schirmer  &  Company. 
191 7:    Vice-president  Philadelphia  Belgian  Relief  Commission. 
1917:    Member  of  National  Y.  M.  C.  A.  War  Work  Council. 
1917 :    State  chairman  for  Pennsylvania  of  Y,  M.  C.  A.  War  Work 

Council. 
1918 :    Member  of  Executive  Committee  and  chairman  of  Publicity 

Committee,  Philadelphia  War  Chest. 
1918:    Chairman  of  Philadelphia  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Recruiting  Com- 
mittee. 
1 91 8:    State  chairman  for  Pennsylvania  of  United  War  Work 

Campaign. 
1918:    August-November:  visited  the  battle-fronts  in  France  as 

guest  of  the  British  Government. 
1919:    September   22:    Relinquished  editorship  of   The  Ladies'' 

Home  Journal,  completing  thirty  years  of  service. 
1920:    September  20:  Upon  the  50th  anniversary  of  arrival  in  the 

United  States,  published  The  Americanization  of  Edward 

Bok. 


THE  EXPRESSION  OF  A  PERSONAL 
PLEASURE 

/  cannot  close  this  record  of  a  boy^s  development 
without  an  attempt  to  suggest  the  sense  of  deep  personal 
pleasure  which  I  feel  that  the  imprint  on  the  title-page 
of  this  book  should  be  that  of  the  publishing  house 
which,  thirty-six  years  ago,  I  entered  cls  stenographer. 
It  was  there  I  received  my  start;  it  was  there  I  laid 
the  foundation  of  that  future  career  then  so  hidden  from 
me.  The  happiest  days  of  my  young  manhood  were 
spent  in  the  employ  of  this  house;  I  there  began  friend- 
ships which  have  grown  closer  with  each  passing  year. 
And  one  of  my  deepest  sources  of  satisfaction  is,  that 
during  all  the  thirty-one  years  which  have  followed  my 
resignation  from  the  Scribner  house,  it  has  been  my 
good  fortune  to  hold  the  friendship,  and,  as  I  have  been 
led  to  believe,  the  respect  of  my  former  employers. 
That  they  should  now  be  my  publishers  demonstrates, 
in  a  striking  manner,  the  curious  turning  of  the  wheel 
of  time,  and  gives  me  a  sense  of  gratification  difficult  of 
expression. 


4SS 


INDEX 


Abbey,  Edwin  A.,  245,  259  flf. 

Abbott,  Lyman,  278,  345,  363,  375. 

Abbott,  Mrs.  Lyman,  175. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  60. 

Adams,  John,  60. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  "^o. 

Addams,  Jane,  303,  375. 

Adriatic,  404. 

Alcott,  Louisa,  visit  to,  53  fF. ;  Emer- 
son visited  by,  55  flf. ;  letters  from, 
232- 

American  Civic  Association,  254, 
352  ff. 

American  Lithographic  Company, 
27. 

American  Magazine,  78  flf. 

American  Red  Cross,  389. 

American  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany, 71. 

Anderson,  Mary,  visit  to,  220. 

Anthony,  Susan  B.,  303. 

App\eton' s  EncyclopcBdia,  17  flf. 

Astor,  William  Waldorf,  149. 

Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe 
Railroad,  253. 

Atlanta,  257. 

Atlantic  Monthly,  378. 

Bangs,  John  Kendrick,  136,  233. 

Banker,  James  H.,  17. 

Barger,  Samuel  F.,  17. 

Baruch,  Bernard,  391. 

Beauvoir,  Mississippi,  26. 

Beaverbrook,  Lord,  404. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  64  ff.,  80  ff., 

132,  death  of,  133  flf. 
Belfield,  Thomas  Dun,  399. 
Bell,  Alexander  Graham,  17. 
Bellamy,  Edward,  118. 
Bernhardt,  Sarah,  328. 
Blaine,  James  G.,  192  ff. 
Blankenburg,  Mrs.  Rudolph,  301. 
Bok,   Edward  William,  arrival  of, 

I  flf.;    first  American  schooldays 


of,  2  ff . ;  homework  of,  8  ff . ;  first 
money  earned  by,  9  ff . ;  first  news- 
paper work  of,  1 2  ff . ;  first  position 
of,  15  ff.;  self-education  of,  17  ff., 
29;  reportorial  work  of,  29  ff.,  61 
ff.;  Garfield's  letter  to,  18;  auto- 
graph letters  collected  by,  18  ff.; 
first  literary  commission  of,  27  ff . ; 
first  editorial  work  of,  28;  Grant's 
and  Hayes's  speeches  reported 
by.  30;  President  Hayes  and,  31 
ff.;  Boston  visit  of,  34  ff.;  the- 
atre programmes  published  by, 
63;  Brooklyn  Magazine  published 
by,  65  ff.,  78;  stock  market 
played  by,  69  ff . ;  publishing  busi- 
ness entered  by,  78;  syndicate 
newspaper  business  of,  80  ff.; 
Beecher's  friendship  with,  85, 
89  ff.;  Bok  Syndicate  Press  or- 
ganized by,  104;  "Woman's 
page"  originated  by,  104  ff.,  149, 
152  ff. ;  Scribner's  employment 
of,  108  ff.,  144  ff.;  Stevenson  and, 
113  ff.;  Stockton  and,  116  ff.; 
Curtis's  offer  to,  155  ff.;  offer 
accepted  by,  158  ff. ;  Ladies' 
Home  Journal  edited  by,  166  ff.; 
new  Curtis  building  and,  258  ff.; 
Eugene  Field  and,  181  ff.;  bill- 
boards and,  253  ff. ;  "Dirty 
Cities"  and,  256  ff.;  Roosevelt 
and,  266  ff.,  273  ff.;  home  life  of. 
268;  Suffragists  and,  302  ff. ; 
Kipling  and,  309  ff. ;  Niagam 
Falls  and,  352  ff.;  war  work  of, 
394  ff.;  battle  front  trip  of, 
404  ff.;  resignation  of,  417  ff. 

Bok  Syndicate  Press,  104,  106. 

Bok,  William,  i,  104,  155. 

Bonheur,  Rosa,  Bok's  visit  to,  230 
ff. 

Book  Buyer,  The,  III  ff.,  141, 

Booth,  Evangeline,  391. 


457 


458 


INDEX 


Boston,  35,  46,  47,  51,  60,  i8r  fif. 

Boston  Globe,  interview  in,  20. 

Boston  Herald,  275. 

Boston  Journal,  108. 

Boston  Transcript,  275. 

Bottome,  Margaret,  172. 

Breadwinners,  The,  138. 

Brewer,  Owen  W.,  147. 

Bridges,  Robert,  book  reviews  by, 

291. 
Briggs,  Dr.  Charles  A.,  144  ff. 
Brooklyn,  2,  11,  17,  20,  29,  65,  86, 

90. 
Brooklyn  Academy  of  Music,  92. 
Brooklyn  Magazine,  65  ff.,  78  ff. 
Brooklyn  Eagle,   12;     interview  in, 

20;  reporting  for,  29  ff.,  61  ff. 
Brooks,   Phillips,  46   ff.;    visit  to, 

48  ff.,  59;  contribution  from,  66, 

104. 
Bulgaria,  capitulation  of,  406. 
Burlingame,    Edward    L.,    109    ff., 

113  ff. 
Burnett,  Frances  Hodgson,  115. 
Bush,  Rufus  T.,  65,  78,  79. 

Cable,  Geo.  W.,  186  ff. 

Cambridge,  40,  45  ff. 

Carleton,  Will,  155. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  56. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  115,  128,  154. 

Carroll,     Lewis;     interview     with, 

221  ff. 
Carroll  Park  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  13. 
Cary,  Anna  Louise,  64. 
Cary,  Clarence,  68  ft.,   74,  76  ff., 

108. 
Castle,  Vernon,  385  ff. 
Century  Magazine,  377  ff. 
Chambersburg,  19,  209. 
Chicago,  182. 
Chicago,    Burlington    and    Quincy 

Railroad,  252  ff. 
Chicago  News,  181,  186. 
Chicago  Tribune,  355. 
Child  Federation,  358  ff. 
Childs,  George  W.,  20,  158. 
Cincinnati,  257. 
Cincinnati  Times-Star,  108. 
Claflin,  A.  B.,  65. 


Clemens,  Samuel,  see  Mark  Twain. 
Clemens,  Mrs.  Samuel,  128. 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  356. 
Cleveland,  President,  298  ff.,  383  ff. 
Coghlan,  Rose,  61  ff. 
Collier,  Robert  J.,  344. 
Colver,  Frederic,  63  ff.,  80. 
Committee  on  Public  Information, 

399- 
Concord,  54. 

Coolidge,  Dr.  Emelyn  L.,  176  ff. 
Cornell,  Alonzo  B.,  17. 
Cosmopolitan  Magazine,  79. 
Country  Life,  Curtis's  purchase  of, 

238  ff . ;  Doubleday's  purchase  of, 

239,  379- 
"Craigie  House,"  46. 
Crawford,  Marion,  233. 
Curtis,  Cyrus  H.  K.,  155  ff.,  200  ff.; 

new  building  of,  258  ff.,  346  ff., 

378  ff. 
Curtis,  Mrs.  Cyrus  H.  K.,  160. 
Curtis,  M.  L.,  268. 
Curtis   Publishing   Company,   200, 

239;  new  building,  258,  260,  265. 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  235  ff. 

Davenport,  Fannie,  150  ff. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  letter  from,  211  ff. ; 

visit  with,  25,  26. 
Davis,  Richard  Harding,  136. 
De  Forest,  Lockwood,  310. 
De  Koven,  Reginald,  365. 
Democracy  Triumphant,  115,  154. 
De  Monvel,  Boutet,  262. 
Doctor  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde,   113, 

115,  117- 
Dodgson,  Rev.  Chas.  L.,  see  Lewis 

Carroll. 
Dorscheimer,  Governor,  105. 
Doubleday,    Frank     M.,     iii     ff., 

127,  147,  154,  166,  239,  309  ff., 

377. 
Doubleday,  Page  and  Co.,  iii,  239. 
Doyle,  Conan,  233. 
Dumas,  fils,  229,  230. 
Du  Maurier,  George,  136. 

Early,  General  Jubal,  letter  from, 

19,  209. 
Edinburgh,  405. 


INDEX 


459 


Edison,  Thomas  A.,  17. 

Eliot,  President,  278. 

Elizabeth,  Queen  of  the  Belgians, 

391.392. 
Elkins,  George  W.,  13,  248. 
Eiman,  Mischa,  369  fF. 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  34;    Bok's 

visit  to,  54  ff. 
Empress  of  Asia,  416. 
Evarts,  Wm.  M.,  29. 

Farrar,  Canon,  contribution  from, 

66. 
Federal  Bureau  of  Americanization, 

420. 
Field,  Cyrus  W.,  425. 
Field,  Eugene,  friendship  with,  181, 

189,  209  flF.;   death  of,  232. 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  21,  24. 
Fitch,  George,  173. 
Flaherty,  James  A.,  341. 
Foch,  Ferdinand,  400. 
Freer,  Charles  L.,  248. 
Fremont,  Ohio,  88. 
Frick,  Henry  C,  248. 
Frost,  A.  B.,  117. 

Gardner,  Mrs.  John  L.,  248. 

Garfield,  Dr.  H.  A.,  392. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  letter  to,    18; 

call  on,  21. 
Garland,  Hamlin,  233. 
Garrison,  Wm.  Lloyd,  60. 
Gerard,  J.  W.,  391. 
Gibbons,  Cardinal,  66. 
Gibson,  C.  D.,  231,  245. 
Gladstone,  Wm.  E.,  198  flf. 
Gladstone,  Mrs.,  198  ff. 
Gorgas,  Wm.  C,  391. 
Gould,  Jay,  68  ff. 
Grant,  U.  S.,  letter  from,  19;  call 

on,  21;    dinner  with,  21   fT.,  29; 

speech  of,  30,  34;    contributions 

from,  68. 
Great  War,  387, 

Greenaway,  interview  with,  225  ff. 
Grey,  Earl,  353. 

Hamill,    Dr.    Samuel    McClintock, 
358. 


Hapgood,  Norman,  344. 
Harland,  Marion,  66. 
Harmon,  Dudley,  388. 
Harper  and  Brothers,  13,  20,  207. 
Harper's  Magazine,  13,  378. 
Harper's  Weekly,  13. 
Harper's  Young  People,  13. 
Harris,  Joel  Chandler,  233. 
Harrison,   Benjamin,    192,    194  ff., 

210, 232  ff. 
Harrison,  Mrs.  Burton,  233. 
Havemeyer,  Mrs.,  248. 
Hay,  Ian,  389. 
Hay,  John,  139. 
Hayes,   R.  B.,  call  on,  21;  report 

of  speech  of,  30  ff. ;  drive  with, 

31  ft.;  call  on,  33;   contribution 

from,  66,  87  ff. 
Hegeman,  Evelyn  Lyon,  64. 
Hegeman,  Paul,  394. 
Hitchcock,  Ripley,  19  ff. 
Hodges,  Dean,  375. 
Hofman,  Josef,  365  ff. 
Holmes,    O.    W.,    34;     visit    with, 

35  ff.,  47;   book  introduction  by, 

207. 
Holt,    Henry,    and    Company,    75, 

104,  108. 
Hoover,  Herbert,  390,  425. 
Howard,  Joseph,  Jr.,  134. 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  303. 
Howells,    William    Dean,   66,    191, 

202,  212  ff.,  374. 
Hulme,  Thomas  W.,  398. 

Indianapolis,  282. 

Jerome,  Jerome  K.,  233. 
Jewett,  Sarah  Orne,  233. 
Johnson,  Eldridge  R.,  363. 
Johnson,  John  G.,  248. 

Keller,  Helen,  375. 
Kellogg,  Clara  Louise,  64. 
King,  Horatio,  65. 
Kipling,  J.  Lockwood,  309. 
Kipling,     Rudyard,     191,    213    ff., 

219  ff.,  234,  306;  Bokand,  313  ff., 

316;    English  trip  of,  309,  312; 

Ladies'  Home  Journal,  work  of, 

375,  379,  380,  384. 


460 


INDEX 


Ladies'  Home  Journal,  155  flf.,  159; 
Bok  editor  of,  166,  history  of, 
166;  patent-medicine  advertising 
in,  201  ff.,  340,  345;  "Dirty 
Cities"  in,  256  ff.,  258;  Roose- 
velt in,  275  ff.,  283,  299,  301,  307, 
310,  321  ff.,  324,  346  ff.,  354,  437; 
Fourth  of  July  celebration  ap- 
proved by,  355,  356;  music  in, 
365;  success  of,  374,  375  ff.,  384; 
war  policy  and  work  of,  389-393 ; 
Bok's  resignation  from, 41 7ff., 423. 

Lady  or  the  Tiger,  1 1 5  ff . 

Lane,  Franklin  K.,  420. 

Lape,  Esther  Everett,  420. 

Lathrop,  George  Parsons,  108. 

Lee,  General  R.  E.,  Grant's  letter 
concerning,  19. 

Life,  355- 

Lincoln,  Mrs.  Abraham,  Bok's  visit 
to,  25. 

Little  Lord  Fauntleroy,  115,  117. 

London,  406. 

Longfellow,    H.    W.,    letter    from, 

19.  34.  39  ff- 
Low,  A.  A.,  31,65. 
Low,  Seth,  65,  444. 
Low,  Will  H.,  245. 
Lynch,  Albert,  245. 
Lynn,  Mass.,  256. 

Mabie,  W.  H.,  291. 
McAdoo,  Wm.,  391. 
McFarland,  J.  Horace,  253  flf.,  352, 

354. 
Maclaren,  Ian,  231  ff. 
Mallon,  Mrs.  Isabel,  171. 
Mansfield,  Richard,  114,  117. 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  257. 
Mentor,  The,  147. 
Metropolitan  Hotel,  25  ff. 
Moffat,  Wm.  D.,  147. 
Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  147. 
Moody,  Dwight  L.,  233. 
Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  248. 
Moscowski,  365. 
Mott,  John  R.,  389  ff.,  395. 
Mott,  Lucretia,  60. 

National  Era,  94. 
Netherlands,  i,  43,  45,  434  ff. 


New  Haven,  Conn.,  257. 

New  Orleans,  La.,  188. 

New    York,    autograph    collecting 

in,  20  ff.,  34,  60,  79,  85  ff.,  88, 

356,  405. 
New  York  Evening  Sun,  1 74,285,388. 
New  York  Star,  105,  108,  152. 
New  York  Times,  329. 
New  York  Tribune,  early  letters  in, 

19- 

New  York  Weekly,  14. 
Niagara  Falls,  352  ff. 
Nightingale,  Florence,  224. 
North,  Ernest  Dressel,  147. 
Northcliffe,  Viscount,  389. 

O'Brien,  Robert  L.,  275. 
Orton,  William,  17. 
Outlook,  363. 

Paderewski,  365. 
Parrish,  Maxfield,  258  ff.,  264. 
Patton,  Francis  L.,  144  ff. 
Pavlowa,  Madam,  386. 
Pennypacker,  Mrs.,  301,  356  ff. 
Phelps,  E.  Stuart,  233. 
Philadelphia,  20,  155  ff.,  186  ff.,  191, 

232,  257. 
Philadelphia  Public  Ledger,  20. 
Philadelphia  Times,  108,  155  ff. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  46  ff.,  60. 
Philomathean  Revinu,  64. 
Philomathean  Society,  64. 
Pinkham,  Lavinia,  181. 
Pinkham,  Lydia,  181. 
Pittsburgh^  257. 

Plymouth  Church,  64,  70,  84,  211. 
Plymouth  Pulpit,  65. 
Porter,  Gene  Stratton,  375. 
Presbyterian  Review,  112,  144. 
Pyle,  Howard,  261  ff. 

Queen,  The,  i, 

Raymond,  Rossiter  W.,  65. 

Read,  Opie,  182. 

Riley,    James   Whitcomb,    182    ff., 

232,  319  ff.,  380  ff. 
Roosevelt,  Franklin  D.,  389. 
Roosevelt,       Theodore,       Panama 

Canal,    214   ff.,   249   ff.;   friend- 


INDEX 


461 


ship  with,  266,  268;  Ladies'  Home 
Journal,  work  of,  223,  274  ff., 
283;  Bole's  son  and,  284,  290; 
Niagara  Falls  and,  352  ff.,  362  ff., 

383,  438. 
Root,  Elihu,  355. 
Russell,  Sol  Smith,  182  ff. 
Russia,  448. 

Safford,  Ray,  147. 

Sangster,  Margaret,  66. 

Saturday  Evening  Post,  Curtis's 
purchase  of,  239,  258. 

Schell,  Augustus,  17. 

Schlicht,  Paul  J.,  79. 

Scribner,  Arthur  H.,  126. 

Scribner,  Charles,  109,  126  ff. 

Scribner 's  Sons,  Charles,  108  ff., 
126,  129,  166. 

Scribner' s  Magazine,  iii  ff.,  147, 
378. 

Shaw,  Anna  Howard,  303,  390. 

Sheridan,  P.  H.,  29,  contributions 
from,  66. 

Sherman,  General  W.  T.,  call  on, 
21;  letter  from,  23,  29;  con- 
tribution from,  66;  letter  from 
Talmage,  215;  letter  to  Talmage, 
216  ff. 

Slocum,  Henry  W.,  65. 

Smedley,  W.  T.,  245. 

Smith,  F.  Hopkinson,  375. 

Sousa,  John  Philip,  365. 

South  Brooklyn  Aavocate,  10. 

Speer,  Mrs.  Robert  E.,  391. 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  visit  to, 
113  ff.,  296. 

Stockton,  Frank,  115  ff. 

Stokowski,  Leopold,  368  ff. 

Storrs,  Rev,  Richard  S.,  130  ff. 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  140. 

Strauss,  Edward,  365. 

Strauss,  Richard,  365. 

Sullivan,  Sir  Arthur,  227  ff.,  365. 

Sullivan,  Mark,  343  ff. 

Taft,  Charles  P.,  248. 
Taft,  Wm.  H.,  210  ff.,  354  ff.,  383, 
389- 


Talmage,  Rev.  T.  De  Witt,  65,  90. 

Taylor,  W.  L.,  245. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  Lord,  letter  from, 

19- 
Thursby,  Emma  C,  64. 
Tiffany,  Louis  C,  263  ff. 
Tosti,  365. 

Transvaal  Republic,  193. 
Trenton,  N.  J.,  256. 
Trilby,  136  ff. 
Twain,    Mark,    128,    139,    149    ff., 

204  ff.,  382. 
Twombly,  Hamilton  McK.,  17. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  94  ff. 
University  Club,  266. 

Valentine,  149, 

Vanderbilt,  William  H.,  17. 

Van  Dyke,  Catherine,  392, 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  375. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Alexander,  372. 

Verne,  Jules,  228  ff. 

Walker,  E.  D.,  74. 

Washington,  George,  45. 

Webster,  Jean,  375. 

Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany, 15,68,  71,  73ffM  76. 

Wheeler,  Miss  Marianna,  177. 

White,  Stanford,  242,  243. 

Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  Bok's 
letter  from,  19,  208. 

Widener,  Joseph  E.,  248. 

Wiggin,  Kate  Douglas,  233,  375. 

Wilcox,  Ella  Wheeler,  105. 

Wiles,  Irving  R.,  245. 

Wilkes-Barre,  Pa.,  256  ff. 

Wilkinson,  Edward  S.,  396. 

Willard,  Frances  E.,  219. 

Wilmington,  Del.,  261. 

Wilson,  Francis,  186  ff. 

Wilson,  Margaret,  391. 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  381. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  29,  389,  395  ff.,  398, 

400. 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  391. 


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